Hey guys :)
Working on an essay comparing the two and looking for feedback / suggestions. Really needs a few waves of editing and isn't finished but I'm pretty happy with how the last two hours of work turned out.
Again this is a ROUGH ROUGH ROUGH draft compiled from several notes.
Humanity and Nature: An Analysis and Reflection on The Duality Scavenger’s Reign

**Hollow:** 

Scavenger’s Reign showcases how humans altering an ecosystem can be seen as dangerous parasites - an invasive species that disrupts the natural flow developed through a millennium of evolution. Humans pose significant dangers to new ecosystems due to a variety of activities and behaviors that disrupt natural balances and lead to adverse environmental impacts. Even stripped of technology and resources, humans can immediately perpetuate disorder through mere existence. We, as a species, exist on the new alien planet as an invasive species which immediately causes dangerous changes. This relationship is showcased vividly in the relationship between Kamen and Hollow. In “Scavengers Reign” all chaos and violence is caused directly through human interaction. The Hollow, for example, exists in its natural environment as a small fruit eating creature - similar to a rabbit. Now, the Hollow does use mind control to obtain its food but prior to human intervention they are not seen to be violent. It used manipulation out of necessity. It was only when Hollow formed a psychic connection with Kamen and he started feeding it meat that the Hollow slowly corrupted. The malicious nature of humanity literally contaminates an entire ecosystem - with Kamen’s greed and violence and resentment adulterating the behavior of a previously docile animal. Of course it’s hard to explain exactly how Kamen “corrupts” the Hollow without analyzing his cognizance during their interaction, with Hollow and Kamen sharing a sort of mindscape littered with scenes of failure, resentment, and self hatred.
In episode three, Kamen is retrieving fruit for Hollow, and failing miserably. A monkey takes the fruit as he reaches for it. Kamen falls from a tree and is saved by the Hollow, again. An angry Kamen strikes the monkey with a rock, finally capturing the fruit. A pleased hollow munches fruit before Kamen drops the corpse of a monkey in front of it as well.. unknowing what to do, (with this meat being outside of the Hollow’s normal diet) the Hollow begins to consume.
Later, in episode four, Kamen is hunting larger and larger animals, he’s seen violently bludgeoning a dinosaur looking thing before being attacked by an even larger one. Kamen, weak and fragile, slinks away defeated. As he retreats into their cave, Hollow’s den is revealed to be a hole of rotting carcasses - death and flies and meat decaying. When Kamen comes back empty handed, he apologizes. Hollow show’s him a memory of Fiona in which Kamen disappointed her (as he has just disappointed the hollow). This scene shows how Hollow manipulates and communicates with Kamen through emotional sentiments. It would be noted, though, that this relationship isn’t one way. Certainly, Kamen’s negative human traits are seeping into the Hollow as well. Them creating a negative feedback loop of hatred and violence, particularly geared at the existence of other humans who Kamen feels wronged by. Kamen says the creature was “too big for him” and Hollow shows us the flashback of Kamen begging for a route change. Sam says it's too risky, involving closeness to an unstable sun. Kamen’s failure is highlighted and the entire trip is deemed a loss. Kamen begs for a course change saying he’ll “lose everything” (wife and job). Sam refuses. Kamen is motivated by the memory of his failure, and Sam’s aggression/belittling of him. Fueled by these emotions, Kamen begins sharpening a spear. There is then a sequence in which we see Kamen attacking the larger creature. During this sequence we also see a flashback of Kamen ``sticking up for himself” by changing the course of The Demeter. Back on Vespa, Kamen attacks the larger dinosaur with a spear, during which we also get flashbacks of his altercation with Sam. Hollow finally finishes the dinosaur off showering it and Kamen in a rain of gore. Kamen laughs at the blood, proud of himself, screaming: “Fuck you, Sam.”
I think it's a scene where we can see the total and complete adulteration of the Hollow. We can see the direct link between Kamen’s negative human traits and how these traits exist as a blight on the life of the Hollow. The Hollow goes from being a vegetarian, monkey-like creature to being a force of violence. An unstoppable killing machine obsessed with feeding, starving for power. Growing stronger for the sake of growing stronger and motivated only by anger and hunger. This shift in nature is again highlighted in the intro of the next episode in which a new human escapes a cry pod and wanders through the jungle of Vespa, being beaten and hunted the entire time. Finally this person stumbles across Kamen and is relieved to have found a comrade. Hollow immediately kills the man, snapping his neck. There is no motivation for this murder other than hunger and hatred. The nature of the Hollow has been entirely corrupted. We can wonder, then, the potentiality of the Hollow. What if the Hollow had stumbled across Ursula, or Sam? Could the Hollow form a connection to a being with higher sentience and not be corrupted or is this violent change totally inevitable? Is human intervention always a plague?
PARAGRAPH ABOUT KAMEN BEING ABSORBED: Azi has a flashback of seeing the girl who gabe her the notebook in a cryo chamber, asleep. Red alarms clash. Sam ushers people to flee the ship - this is amidst the solar flare. Sam recuses to let Kamen on an escape pod, throwing him yo the floor abd calling him a fucking idiot. Azi throws him a side eye too. The ship is crumbling. -> It transitions to Kamen on Vespa. Hollow is fucking HUGE and murders the new guy in front of Kamen, afraid the newbie would distract Kamen. Kamen questions his actions after the death, remembering the ship. The potentialiTy of Fiona being alive. -> flashback to Kamen running to a pod and closing it. Fiona approaches the window, asking to be let in. Kamen fails to let her in before the pod shoots offz -> flashout, Kamen remembers she is dead. He weeps, taking guilt. Asking why he ran away, confronting his character flaws. Refusing to acknowledge his failures, Kamen is absorbed into the Hollow, who grants him peace within its body.
Levi:
In “Scavenger’s Reign” Levi’s journey takes a profound turn as it merges with the planet’s consciousness, evolving beyond mere sentience and becoming one with nature. It is after Levi is obliterated and repaired, coming back wielding the history of millenia, that it exists in near parallel comparison to Nausicaa, with both characters existing as a form of mediation between humanity and nature. In the beginning of the show there are many scenes which hint at a collective planetary consciousness Levi seems to be tapping into - with Levi witnessing bioluminescent insects which seem to communicate with Levi and with the planet. As Levi merges with the planetary consciousness it grows beyond the human concept of sentence and individuality; Levi gains the knowledge and emotions of an intricate web of life and energy which sustains Planet Vespa. This new state allows Levi to exist in perfect harmony with the natural world and it becomes an integral part of the unified whole.
In episode one, we are introduced to Levi as an inherently curious “creature”. Levi and Azi have a whole garden flourishing. Levi mentions “malfunctions” which caused her to bury Azi’s wrench out of “curiosity”. Her hatch opens to show she’s covered in a sort of fungus which she says is “helping her”. Azi is afraid of its behaviors and demands to run a diagnostic. The dynamic between Levi and Azi is shown to be boss/underling. Levi is treated somewhat coldly. Levi states Azi is “acting meaner”. This fungus, of course, is what we later understand as a medium for the collective plenary consciousness. Levi is merging with the consciousness slowly.
In episode two, Levi is constantly marveling at the environment, feeling a deep connection to nature. During a storm, Levi shows Azi into a large structure and Azi asks how she knows it's safe. Inside the structure is an eden-like safe haven (12:32) which is BEAUTIFUL. Azi says Levi must have known this area and Levi admits she has been exploring at night, due to curiosity and wonder. Azi finds a sculpture made by Levi and asks if she made it. “Yes” “why” I just thought it looked nice”. Azi remarks no other Levi has ever behaved like this and demands for her to open her maintenance hatch. (21:00, discuss the entire dialogue about Levi’s projects and how she is “compelled to do them”). These projects are botany based. Azi goes to eat fruit Levi grew: “I'm sorry this isn't safe for humans to eat” “then why did you grow it” “maybe it wasn't for you”. Shows how Azi expects all Levi’s to exist and behave solely for the benefit of their creators.
In later episodes, we see the fungus inside of Levi expanding and we see it’s connection to Levi’s relationship with Planet Vespa. In episode four, for example, Levi is shown watching a pile of ants closely, picking one up and viewing it, communicating to it with bioluminescent lights. She then gives it food and sets it on its way - showing how Levi is tuning into the planet on a micro and macro scale. This annoys Azi, as observing a string of insects is not beneficial to her at all. (flashback showing Levi being “fixed” when she doesnt work and her being fixed / showing how Azi treats her like a tool and takes Levi for granted). The two embark on the bike and Levi is seen communicating with a large swarm of insects. The two approach a river andAzi pulls a large grub off Levi, commenting that they are “more active than usual”. Levi remarks she can feel tremors, which is soon to be a large herd of creatures stampeding. The two are caught in the stampede whilst on their bike - Levi catches onto a language of sorts by the creatures which dictates their movement pattern (17:00) and begins to instruct Azi on “following the sway of the herd”. After getting used to the movements, Azi lifts her arms clearly reveling in the majestic experience Levi has been attuned to this entire time / being at one with the herd / the planet. The stampede leads to a large nest and then an open plain.
In her quest for cognizance, Levi begins to dream. Episode five opens with Levi wandering through a golden forest, observing the various gentle forms of life around her prior to being instructed to follow Azi. Levi notices the white lotus, and the two wander the woods. Tendrils of plants grasp as Levi seemingly wanting her to stay in the forest. Levi looks down and sees hands of flesh. Azi says she’s been acting “so strange” in an ominous tone. Levi awakens and Azi demands her help. She looks down and sees her regular robotic hands. Levi is.. Evolving. Changing, slowly. Levi is cleaning Azi’s hair with a knife and Azi says she will return the favor, telling Levi to open her hatch. Levi seems apprehensive - seemingly aware the mold is helping her evolve and that Azi is not a fan of it (4:00) [analyze convo here / tension]. Azi opens Levi and notices she flinches as the mold is touched - the mold seems to have opened Levi’s mind allowing her to feel physical sensations and consciously view the world around her. Levi is developing sentience beyond apathetically taking orders. A scared Levi says she doesn’t like how scraping the mold feels and Azi pets her, both remarking that it feels good. The two argue over whether Levi “should feel anything” and Azi clearly views this as a problem (since she needs to understand and trust Levi to survive). Levi is shut off (10:00). While Levi is shut off, Azi begins to get hit with fluffy balls that stick to her. She’s soon overwhelmed, like a bacteria covered in blood cells. She flounders, barely able to move, and sees the incoming horde of plant matter-covered creatures which sucks its victims dry with a large proboscis. Azi crawls to Levi, disabled by the clumped matter, and turns her on. As the creature approaches Levi regains consciousness and fucking MURKS it. Levi apologizes for her not helping due to being turned off. Azi admits Levi saved her, Levi states she doesn't want to be shut off, ever. Stating being shut off (22:04, “what appears strange to you isn’t necessarily a malfunction, the world shares things w me I could not possibly experience by myself. Things far beyond what's right in front of me. But when you shut me off, I see nothing. I feel nothing. and I don't like that.” Levi discovers the fear of death.
Our duo are blasting some beautiful plains on their bike. Azi is littered in festering wounds from the bulbs which stuck to her. Residual material embedded in her skin. Azi dips a bloody shirt into a shallow pond and notices some fish-like creatures which come to eat the dead flesh. She dips her hand in… and they clean her wounds. A large water basin looms in the background, which they approach. Azi ascends the “man-made” (sentient made) stone structure (very castle in the sky looking / Ghibli-esque). It seems Azi is learning to appreciate the beauty of Vespa as a light string instrumental crescendos and she submerged herself into the cool water - trusting the creature to heal her. Trust being, of course, the biggest character trait we can attribute to Azi. She does not trust others, let alone wild alien creatures. On the ground, Levi seems to communicate with a little cool bug guy (13:06). Azi is healed! She puts her hand on Levi, questioning Levi’s evolution. Saying she should be “more delicate”. Levi ponders her ability to “join her for a swim.” The two marvel at the evolutionary strangeness. Levi is acknowledged as an equal.
It is not long after this fear of death creeps into Levi’s expanding mind that she is to experience it. Levi and Azi are pushing the bike to obtain its cable to use to cross a giant gorge. (06:55). Levi writes a song, (include this dialogue.) Levi poses a wish to include pursuing her hobbies, such as singing. Citing a “Place on the Demeter '' where she might be able to do so. Levi and Azi discuss Fiona, the person who programmed Levi. Levi admits she feels close to Fiona. That she was a kind, patient creator. Azi compliments Levi’s singing and urges her to continue pursuing her ambitions. The two successfully tether the bike cable across the gorge — the camera pans to reveal Hollow scouring the edge. We cut back to our duo grappling across the gorge, singing the melody from Fiona’s memory / Axi’s memory. Kamen recognizes the tune, sending Hollow into a rage forward. Hollow scales the cord towards the two and they struggle forward until the cord breaks, slamming all 3 into the side of the cliff. Azi urges Levi to climb. Azi breaches the top of the cliff first, followed by Levi, and then.. Hollow. Levi’s small legs are suddenly caught by Hollow’s telekinesis “Help me…” she says, “help me.” A memory of Kamen and Fiona kissing plays and Azi charges hollow with a spear. As she approaches, Levi is split in two - shattered into minuscule bolts and scraps of metal that rain down over the cliff edge 15:49). Azi screams after her. A tear rolling down her cheek - her partner.. A growing consciousness, much like an innocent child who has just discovered the sand of a beach, the glory of nature, murdered.

Hey friends!
After a super successful second single social Meetup a month ago, and a third last weekend, we are expanding our group and hoping you'll join us.
May 25 @2pm, downtown park
If you're between 30 and 40, single, and looking for a fun group to hang out with this summer, shoot me a chat request not a DM with your name, age, and one to two sentences about yourself.
We are once again striving to maintain gender balances, ensure everyone's comfort in the group, and only invite people who match/maintain the vibe.
We will send you the location and more details as soon as we can, we know everyone has lots going on and don't want you waiting around. If you don't hear back, don't feel bad, we're probably just waiting to balance genders. We will post more events in the future!

Hey entrepreneurs, freelancers, and business owners of Clarksville!
Welcome to Turnout Tuesday, our weekly thread where you get the spotlight to shine on your business, share what you're all about, and connect with potential customers and partners right here in our community!
Whether you're just starting out, looking to expand your reach, or simply want to share your passion project, this is your chance to let everyone know what you're working on.
Here's how it works:

1. Introduce Your Business: Tell us the name, what you do, and what makes your offering special. Feel free to add a sentence or two about your journey or what inspired you to start your business.
2. Share Your Offers: Have a new product, a special discount, or a unique service? This is the place to share it! Make sure to explain why it's awesome.
3. Provide Contact Information: Whether it's a website, an email, or social media profiles, let people know how they can reach you, learn more, or make a purchase.
4. Feedback and Connections: If you're looking for feedback, partnerships, or connections, be clear about what you're seeking and how others can help.

Rules & Guidelines:

• Please keep it professional and respectful. This is a supportive space for growth and networking.
• One post per business. Make it count!
• Ensure your offers comply with the subreddit's rules and Reddit's terms of service.
• Be ready to engage. If people have questions or show interest, make sure to respond.

Turnout Tuesday Tips:

• Be concise but informative. Capture interest with clear, compelling descriptions.
• Use bullet points or short paragraphs for easy reading.
• Include visuals or links (where allowed) to make your post stand out.

Let's make every Tuesday a day where our community's entrepreneurial spirit truly shines. Turn out, stand out, and let's support each other's successes!
Looking forward to seeing what amazing things you're all working on!
Cheers, The Clarksville Mod Team

I’m currently looking for an app I can load my worksheet and invoice template (an image) and add text boxes with pull down options or even a basic text lines I can touch and input text.
I’m currently using Goodnotes with basic writing on the image but it’s a bit cumbersome as my business expands.
I really hope I explained it properly.
Thanks in advance! Cheers

Greetings and Salutations! Not much to say here, had to know what the Attor was going to do. Hope you enjoy!
Ch. 26

• The Attor capturing Feyre is probably the best thing that's happened to her. Now she'll finally realize how far behind she is in her abilities, get her ass in gear, and BECOME THE GODDAMN AVATAR.
  
• Is that Rhysand's music I hear???? Shadow spear this fooligan, plz and ty
  
• Oooh the Attor is working for King Hybern…great; now he has the cauldron legs and Jurian's eye/finger. Just the book is left and Feyre is like, “Don't look at me when I'm trying to train.”
  
• Is that Azriel’s music????? Nice super hero landing, BTW
  
• “Will he kill him?” “No.” Damn. I'm assuming Azriel is the master of the hentai shadow tentacle technique
  
• TAMLIN WAS RIGHT. Feyre is in constant danger, what a blow to her ego.
  
• Lol Rhys using Feyre as bait, very clever. I should just always assume he’s playing 4D chess while Feyre is doodling with crayons
  
• Nice let's get this training started!
  
• DAMN she winnowed!
  

Ch. 27

• Noice! The classic, accidental, unintentional mounting scene that's found in every romance novel. Gotta have it.
  
• “Velaris isn't my home.” Savage, but uncalled for.
  
• Rhys is now going to cry on his portable multi-dimensional bed.
  

Ch. 28

• Bro…Nesta pretending to not enjoy Cassian eye-fucking her is adorable. I'm assuming once they bang the house will literally be in shambles.
  
• Oh cool, love me a good pensieve scene.
  
• Dude, Azriel's torture dagger is called Truth-Teller? That's a great name
  
• Yeah Azriel's rage seems more methodical and focused…he seems way more brutal than Cassian
  
• Hmmm so Spring Court is on lockdown…doesn't surprise me
  
• Whooo, date night with the inner circle!
  
• Wait, so Nuala and Cerridwen are half high fae and half wraith? How does that even work? Do wraiths even have a physical, tangible body? I need a long chapter that details how sex with a wraith would work. For science, of course ;)
  
• LOL Amren's amulet was just a placebo? That's awesome
  

Ch. 29

• Fun fun, a nighttime stroll through Velaris sounds lovely
  
• What does faelight look like, exactly?
  
• Dude there are official sports leagues in Prythian? Like what? Sarah J, you don't just drop this little detail in one sentence and not expand on it at all. I gotta know! This has a numerous amount of implications that I can't even…
  
• Whoa, is Amren actually a vampire??? She's drinking a goblet of blood at the restaurant. Please tell me this isn't the case, we already have a werewolf with Tammy, I don't want this to turn into Twilight
  
• Lol Azriel immediately wants to go dancing with Mor…this bro is thirsty
  
• Oh shit, Rhys and Feyre are now paired off. “I said a bang, bang, bangitty bang..”
  
• Yay, cool history lesson on the night court and the creation of Velaris. I'm wondering if the High Lord that created it was Mor’s family.
  
• Ohhhhh so Rhysand was playing the music when Feyre was in the dungeon Under the Mountain. In hindsight, that's super obvious
  
• Omg the old school sexting between Rhys and Feyre is hilarious. Love that Rhys is taking his shot though.
  
• Ok, too much use of the word “licking” on one page. Gonna need you to dial it down a notch, Mrs. Maas.
  
• Poor Rhys, looks like he's gonna have to rub one out tonight by himself
  

Ch. 30

• YES a training montage, this is what I’ve been asking for!
  
• Oooh tattoos all over their bodies…I approve. Can we get approved designs from Sarah J?
  
• Bro, Cassian is just a big softie isn't he? Love that he's teaching Feyre some fisticuffs
  
• Oh this is therapeutic for Feyre, she's letting out all her anger and guilt in that punching bag.
  
• Yeah, definite guilt for the faeries she murdered…but none for Clare Beddor?!? That's cold-blooded
  
• “I could smell the sweat on him, the sea and citrus scent beneath it.” Bro, is Rhys wearing that Old Spice Sea Spray deodorant? That shit smells good
  
• Oh interesting, there are different types of darkness that Feyre can use…glad she's finally tapping into this ability, sounds very cool
  

Fun chapters! Feels like this section is a bit of a lul, but I'm curious how things are gonna go down once they go to the Summer Court. Anyway, thanks for reading!

This is hard to explain, but I appreciate your patience. I have a criminal case that is in the sentencing fulfillment stage, which means that I have been charged and sentenced and I am fulfilling my agreed-upon restitution.
My father is an attorney. My attorney was hired because my father worked with him and it’s a simple misdemeanor case. Easy money, no big deal.
After multiple extensions with no offeagreement from the DA, I was allowed to provide documentation of my completion of rehabilitation and to give a donation to a rehab facility. Upon providing documentation and donating, I was told that the court would expunge the charge. So, I did exactly that.
When I arrived at the courthouse having completed my requirements I was told that things had changed. My attorney said that there was a new assistant DA and she was “pretty mean” and “they kind of want to appear tough. So, my lawyer said we were just going to extend it, let things calm down and approach it later. Well, after a couple of extensions, the prosecutor gave me the offer.
I could serve jail and pay a fine which would be substantially more expensive than the second option. The other option was 9 months probation that was community service, can’t travel outside of the county, fines, supervision fees, no use of any substance including alcohol (my charge was not alcohol related at all), attend two specific meetings that are 3 hours each, and complete a class that is 3 hours for a week.
I am not irritated by the requirements set forth. A majority of them I’ve already completed. No big deal.
My question is whether or not my experience is normal. How in the world did I get one agreement, and complete the requirements, only to have my restitution be elevated? Is that common? Does my lawyer just suck that bad? Mind you, I already paid a donation to complete the original order. I can’t get that money back. Now, I have much bigger fines and everything that comes with it.
I have an honest suspicion that my father used his connections to manipulate my options/situation. I will spare you and not expand any further here, but I believe this because my parents are wildly controlling. They are obsessed with the idea that I am sick or doing things that are illegal. I am not. I am three years removed from this charge, but due to Covid, they’ve begun prosecuting old cases. I am fine.
I have called dozens of attorneys just to request perspective. I’ve only called out of my county. My family is so connected that I can’t trust any local attorney to give me a non-discriminatory opinion.
I plan to fulfill my sentence, but I would like to confront my attorney and my father if
I appreciate whatever opinion you have.
[TL;DR] In a nutshell, I agreed with the prosecutor to do certain things, which included a monetary donation. I did those things, only to go back to court and be told that my sentencing options had been aggravated without having done anything wrong. The reason given to me by my attorney was there were elections held and the new district attorney was “tougher.” So, they saw my case and even though I’d already fulfilled the agreement, they decided to upgrade my punishment.

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
STAT OF THE WEEK: Amazon could finally surpass Walmart to become the nation’s biggest company by revenue, having grown by 12% last year compared with Walmart's growth of 6%. Two more years of similar growth discrepancy would push Amazon past Walmart in sales.
Shopify is suing Shopline in New York federal court, accusing it of illegally copying Shopify's software to build its own e-commerce platform. Shopline is a Singapore-based subsidiary of the Chinese technology company JOYY Inc. Shopify said in the lawsuit that Shopline created a “thinly disguised knockoff” of its Dawn theme to power a competing e-commerce service. The lawsuit even says that the “Shopify” name still appears in the code of various versions of Seed that Shopline is distributing, and that Shopify found a Chinese webpage hosted by Joyy with the title “Seed Theme” that still carries headers reading “dawn-test.”
In other lawsuit news this week — Temu is facing legal action from 17 companies accusing it of violating new EU laws with “manipulative practices” such as making it difficult to delete your account, and lack of transparency over who their sellers are and why certain products are recommended to customers. Temu was the most downloaded app in the UK in 2023 and still remains as a top downloaded app in 2024.
The state of Arizona has taken legal action against Amazon, launching two lawsuits that accuse the company of monopolistic behavior and deceptive practices involving dark patterns. The first lawsuit claims that Amazon's business practices violate the state's Consumer Fraud Act by employing dark patterns to make it difficult for users to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions. The second lawsuit alleges that Amazon breaches Arizona's Uniform State Antitrust Act by maintaining a monopoly via enforcing agreements with third-party sellers to prevent them from offering lower prices on other platforms. It also challenges Amazon's Buy Box algorithm under the Consumer Fraud Act, claiming that it favors sellers who use Fulfillment By Amazon. The legal actions echo similar complaints from the FTC and various states.
Last week Amazon made a big splash with its first-ever event during upfront week, taking over Pier 36 in New York which has previously hosted upfront presentations from Disney and TelevisaUnivision. The company called on celebrities including Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Will Ferrell, and Alicia Keys to demonstrate how premium their content is. Amazon worked to separate itself from its competitors by showcasing its scale. Prime Video now has an average monthly ad-supported reach of 200M customers, with 115M in the US, making it the largest premium ad-supported streaming service both globally and in the U.S. It also announced new upcoming series such as Spider-Man Noir, Tomb Raider, and a prequel to Legally Blond.
eBay launched a new feature called “resell on eBay” that is designed to make it easier for brands and consumers to list clothing for sale on its marketplace. The feature is built into Certilogo, which was acquired by eBay in 2023, which features an AI-powered digital ID printed on the product tag to help brands manage the lifecycle of their garments and give consumers a way to confirm the item's authenticity. Users scan a QR code on a product's smart label to generate a “resell your garment” button. Clicking the button directs the user to check the authenticity of the item through Certilogo's AI authentication system by signing in with their eBay account. From there, an eBay listing is prefilled with information from the brand about the item. Users can then edit the listing, upload additional photos, and publish the item for sale.
Poshmark launched a new paid marketing tool called “Promoted Closets” that gives sellers the ability to promote their entire shop at once. The tool uses machine learning to automatically promote individual product listings from a seller's entire inventory, identifying shoppers' search terms and matching them with promoted items. Promoted Closet works on a cost per click model where sellers only get charged when a shopper clicks and views the item from a promoted listing. There's an option to set the budget manually or get a recommendation from Poshmark. Each campaign lasts for 7 days.
Klarna says that it is not sharing its customer data with credit bureaus in the US because the bureaus “do not have proper models to responsibly process the data and ensure good consumer outcomes.” It does share its data with UK credit bureaus. Klarna added that the credit models used today in the US “were built decades ago and calculate data based on monthly payments, long-term loans, and open lines of credit. But BNPL does not fit into these categories.” The company claims that BNPL is different because it offers bi-weekly instead of monthly payments, and unlike a credit card, Klarna doesn't offer an open line of credit.
Third party sellers on Amazon, which make up 60% of sales on Amazon's marketplace, are reconsidering how heavily they'll discount products this year for Prime Day, given how much seller fees have increased on the platform in recent months, according to Modern Retail. According to data from SmartScout, Amazon FBA fees for standard-sized products have jumped 96% over the past 10 years, outpacing inflation. Seller fees can eat up about half the cost per sale on Amazon, according to Marketplace Pulse. That doesn't leave much room for running Prime Day deals, which primarily benefit Amazon as opposed to the individual merchants who are pressured to wipe out their little remaining margin for the sake of running a deal at all.
Netflix announced durings it Upfronts presentation that it's launching its own advertising platform to compete against Google, Amazon, Hulu, Comcast, and other ad giants. Amazon has only been in the advertising business for a year and a half after launching its ad-supported tier in Nov 2022. Netflix originally partnered with Microsoft to develop its ad tech, which let the streaming platform enter the ad space quickly and catch up with rivals like Hulu, which has offered an ad-supported tier since 2010. Launching its own in-house ad tech will allow Netflix to take full control of its advertising and create targeted and personalized ad experiences. Netflix wants to experiment with “episodic” campaigns, which involves a series of ads that tell a story rather than delivering repetitive ads. Brilliant!
Slack is under attack after users discovered that the company has been using their messages, content, and files to train its global AI models, which Slack uses to power their channel and emoji recommendations and search results. It was discovered that if you don't want Slack to use your data, you have to e-mail the company to opt-out, which isn't a good look for a company that makes a big deal out of telling customers that “You control your data.” In response to the outrage, Slack published a blog post to clarify how its customers' data is used.
Google will now let you perform a “web” search, which lets you filter out almost all of its AI results and knowledge panels that currently take over its SERPs, leaving you with just links and text like the old days. The order of the search results are the same regardless of whether you pick “web” or “all”, and it doesn't block links to YouTube videos or Reddit posts. There are also still ads that appear above and below the results.
YouTube is officially launching its YouTube Select “creator takeovers,” which lets advertisers buy out the ad inventory on channels representing the top 1% of content on the platform. The program began as a pilot at the end of 2023 and is now opening to more top creators.
Wix launched three new AI-powered image enhancement and creation tools to help users create and display high-quality images. The new tools include an AI Image Creator to make the images, Object Eraser to remove unwanted objects in the images, and AI Image Editor to add/edit portions of the image. Honestly, the three tools kind of sound like one tool with three features, but you do you, Wix.
Temu, which is already 20% bigger than Shein in the US and gets 42% of its business from the US, Mexico, and Chile, is turning its attention to Europe and wants to grow rapidly in the region. The company has redirected its enormous ad spend to Europe and Mexico while Washington scrutinizes its business practices in the US.
Visa announced major changes to how its credit and debit cards will operate in the US in the coming months and years. The new features mean consumers will be carrying fewer physical cards in their wallets, and will make the 16-digit card number increasingly irrelevant. The biggest change will be the ability for banks to issue one physical card that is connected to multiple bank accounts, which consumers can apply usage rules to.
Mastercard and Salesforce announced a new integration designed to help customers speed up the resolution of transaction disputes and chargebacks, as well as reduce costs associated with resolving them. The partnership will integrate Salesforce's Financial Services Cloud with Mastercard's dispute resolution services, providing real time notifications and a central dashboard for managing disputes.
Meta is taking inspiration from BeReal and Snapchat by developing a feature for Instagram called “Peek” that allows users to post authentic pictures that can only be viewed once. A photo shared via a Peek would have to be taken with your camera in the moment, as you would not be able to upload an image from your gallery, and you won't be able to add filters or edit the photo.
Ikea launched a TikTok livestream where cats and dogs model and demonstrate new Ikea products for pets. The Pet Shopping Network will appear for everyone in the UK on TikTok and showcase pets demonstrating Ikea's 29-piece pet furniture range.
Sam's Club is planning to launch an online shopping portal in Hong Kong within the next two months, giving the territory access to its products via e-commerce. The service will include free delivery for purchases over 599 yuan ($83).
Amazon raised warehouse worker wages to $15/hour five years ago, but today half of workers surveyed told researchers they struggle to afford food and rent. Amazon called the researcher's methodology “deeply flawed” and said the company had tried to raise its concerns with the study’s authors but never heard back.
Lots of layoffs this week… Amazon laid off more than 100 customer service reps, Walmart let go of hundreds of corporate staffers and ordering employees across the US and Canada, Gopuff laid off 6% of its staff, and Indeed laid off 8% of its workforce.
Remember that former diversity program manager at Facebook who stole more than $4M from the company through fake business deals in exchange for kickbacks? I first reported on Barbara Furlow-Smiles in December of last year when she pled guilty to the theft. Well, last week she was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for her scheme.
In the world of corporate turnover… The chief of Amazon Web Services, Adam Selipsky, is stepping down next month after a three-year term to be replaced by Matt Garman, a senior VP who has overseen sales and marketing at AWS. Also, eBay's VP of Global Communications, Michelle Friedman, departed the company to take on a role at Samsara, a cloud platform built for tracking and analyzing data from physical operations.
Meta is shutting down Workspace, a version of Facebook that had been built to enable communication among business teams and organizations. Sources say that it will be business as usual on the platform until August 25, 2025, and then it will be read-only until May 2026. Meta is recommending Zoom-owned Workvivo as a migration-ready alternative.
Ted Baker Canada is holding store-closing clearance sales across locations in the US and Canada after filing for bankruptcy in April. As of May 10th, online shopping is no longer available and all sales are final across the company's brick-and-mortar retail locations.
Sezzle, a US-based BNPL service, partnered up with Celerant Technology, a POS system for retailers, to offer a BNPL option when checking out in-store . The two companies had partnered in 2023 to offer BNPL options online, and now the solution is being brought to brick-and-mortar stores.
BuyBay, a Dutch recommerce platform, is launching a SaaS product using its own recommerce software. Retailers and manufacturers can now resell unreturned products from their own distribution center, which helps reduce CO2-emissions and increase profits.
Setapp Mobile, a subscription-based alternative to the Apple App Store that's now possible thanks to the EU's Digital Markets Act, went into invite-only beta last week. The new app store allows customers to play with a range of apps without being hit with reduced features, ads, options to upgrade, and without spending money on something they may not use. The biggest challenge with the Setapp iOS store is getting the app installed on your iPhone, which involves following a link, installing software, and then activating it — a process made intentionally cumbersome by Apple.
Avalara expanded its partnership with Shopify by joining the Shopify Tax Platform. Avalara has powered tax calculation for Shopify Plus customers since 2015, and now through the Shopify Tax Partner Platform, the company can serve all Shopify customers with their global tax compliance tools.
Walmart delivered 4.4B items the same day or next day, beating Amazon, which said it did 4B items in one day. Walmart's advantage is that it uses stores for its same-day deliveries.
Plus 9 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Gorgias's $29M Series C-2 round, which it plans to use the funds from to launch its new AI Agent.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week! For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/shopify-sues-shopline-ebays-qr-code-netflixs-new-ad-serve What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks. -PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
STAT OF THE WEEK: Amazon could finally surpass Walmart to become the nation’s biggest company by revenue, having grown by 12% last year compared with Walmart's growth of 6%. Two more years of similar growth discrepancy would push Amazon past Walmart in sales.
Shopify is suing Shopline in New York federal court, accusing it of illegally copying Shopify's software to build its own e-commerce platform. Shopline is a Singapore-based subsidiary of the Chinese technology company JOYY Inc. Shopify said in the lawsuit that Shopline created a “thinly disguised knockoff” of its Dawn theme to power a competing e-commerce service. The lawsuit even says that the “Shopify” name still appears in the code of various versions of Seed that Shopline is distributing, and that Shopify found a Chinese webpage hosted by Joyy with the title “Seed Theme” that still carries headers reading “dawn-test.”
In other lawsuit news this week — Temu is facing legal action from 17 companies accusing it of violating new EU laws with “manipulative practices” such as making it difficult to delete your account, and lack of transparency over who their sellers are and why certain products are recommended to customers. Temu was the most downloaded app in the UK in 2023 and still remains as a top downloaded app in 2024.
The state of Arizona has taken legal action against Amazon, launching two lawsuits that accuse the company of monopolistic behavior and deceptive practices involving dark patterns. The first lawsuit claims that Amazon's business practices violate the state's Consumer Fraud Act by employing dark patterns to make it difficult for users to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions. The second lawsuit alleges that Amazon breaches Arizona's Uniform State Antitrust Act by maintaining a monopoly via enforcing agreements with third-party sellers to prevent them from offering lower prices on other platforms. It also challenges Amazon's Buy Box algorithm under the Consumer Fraud Act, claiming that it favors sellers who use Fulfillment By Amazon. The legal actions echo similar complaints from the FTC and various states.
Last week Amazon made a big splash with its first-ever event during upfront week, taking over Pier 36 in New York which has previously hosted upfront presentations from Disney and TelevisaUnivision. The company called on celebrities including Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Will Ferrell, and Alicia Keys to demonstrate how premium their content is. Amazon worked to separate itself from its competitors by showcasing its scale. Prime Video now has an average monthly ad-supported reach of 200M customers, with 115M in the US, making it the largest premium ad-supported streaming service both globally and in the U.S. It also announced new upcoming series such as Spider-Man Noir, Tomb Raider, and a prequel to Legally Blond.
eBay launched a new feature called “resell on eBay” that is designed to make it easier for brands and consumers to list clothing for sale on its marketplace. The feature is built into Certilogo, which was acquired by eBay in 2023, which features an AI-powered digital ID printed on the product tag to help brands manage the lifecycle of their garments and give consumers a way to confirm the item's authenticity. Users scan a QR code on a product's smart label to generate a “resell your garment” button. Clicking the button directs the user to check the authenticity of the item through Certilogo's AI authentication system by signing in with their eBay account. From there, an eBay listing is prefilled with information from the brand about the item. Users can then edit the listing, upload additional photos, and publish the item for sale.
Poshmark launched a new paid marketing tool called “Promoted Closets” that gives sellers the ability to promote their entire shop at once. The tool uses machine learning to automatically promote individual product listings from a seller's entire inventory, identifying shoppers' search terms and matching them with promoted items. Promoted Closet works on a cost per click model where sellers only get charged when a shopper clicks and views the item from a promoted listing. There's an option to set the budget manually or get a recommendation from Poshmark. Each campaign lasts for 7 days.
Klarna says that it is not sharing its customer data with credit bureaus in the US because the bureaus “do not have proper models to responsibly process the data and ensure good consumer outcomes.” It does share its data with UK credit bureaus. Klarna added that the credit models used today in the US “were built decades ago and calculate data based on monthly payments, long-term loans, and open lines of credit. But BNPL does not fit into these categories.” The company claims that BNPL is different because it offers bi-weekly instead of monthly payments, and unlike a credit card, Klarna doesn't offer an open line of credit.
Third party sellers on Amazon, which make up 60% of sales on Amazon's marketplace, are reconsidering how heavily they'll discount products this year for Prime Day, given how much seller fees have increased on the platform in recent months, according to Modern Retail. According to data from SmartScout, Amazon FBA fees for standard-sized products have jumped 96% over the past 10 years, outpacing inflation. Seller fees can eat up about half the cost per sale on Amazon, according to Marketplace Pulse. That doesn't leave much room for running Prime Day deals, which primarily benefit Amazon as opposed to the individual merchants who are pressured to wipe out their little remaining margin for the sake of running a deal at all.
Netflix announced durings it Upfronts presentation that it's launching its own advertising platform to compete against Google, Amazon, Hulu, Comcast, and other ad giants. Amazon has only been in the advertising business for a year and a half after launching its ad-supported tier in Nov 2022. Netflix originally partnered with Microsoft to develop its ad tech, which let the streaming platform enter the ad space quickly and catch up with rivals like Hulu, which has offered an ad-supported tier since 2010. Launching its own in-house ad tech will allow Netflix to take full control of its advertising and create targeted and personalized ad experiences. Netflix wants to experiment with “episodic” campaigns, which involves a series of ads that tell a story rather than delivering repetitive ads. Brilliant!
Slack is under attack after users discovered that the company has been using their messages, content, and files to train its global AI models, which Slack uses to power their channel and emoji recommendations and search results. It was discovered that if you don't want Slack to use your data, you have to e-mail the company to opt-out, which isn't a good look for a company that makes a big deal out of telling customers that “You control your data.” In response to the outrage, Slack published a blog post to clarify how its customers' data is used.
Google will now let you perform a “web” search, which lets you filter out almost all of its AI results and knowledge panels that currently take over its SERPs, leaving you with just links and text like the old days. The order of the search results are the same regardless of whether you pick “web” or “all”, and it doesn't block links to YouTube videos or Reddit posts. There are also still ads that appear above and below the results.
YouTube is officially launching its YouTube Select “creator takeovers,” which lets advertisers buy out the ad inventory on channels representing the top 1% of content on the platform. The program began as a pilot at the end of 2023 and is now opening to more top creators.
Wix launched three new AI-powered image enhancement and creation tools to help users create and display high-quality images. The new tools include an AI Image Creator to make the images, Object Eraser to remove unwanted objects in the images, and AI Image Editor to add/edit portions of the image. Honestly, the three tools kind of sound like one tool with three features, but you do you, Wix.
Temu, which is already 20% bigger than Shein in the US and gets 42% of its business from the US, Mexico, and Chile, is turning its attention to Europe and wants to grow rapidly in the region. The company has redirected its enormous ad spend to Europe and Mexico while Washington scrutinizes its business practices in the US.
Visa announced major changes to how its credit and debit cards will operate in the US in the coming months and years. The new features mean consumers will be carrying fewer physical cards in their wallets, and will make the 16-digit card number increasingly irrelevant. The biggest change will be the ability for banks to issue one physical card that is connected to multiple bank accounts, which consumers can apply usage rules to.
Mastercard and Salesforce announced a new integration designed to help customers speed up the resolution of transaction disputes and chargebacks, as well as reduce costs associated with resolving them. The partnership will integrate Salesforce's Financial Services Cloud with Mastercard's dispute resolution services, providing real time notifications and a central dashboard for managing disputes.
Meta is taking inspiration from BeReal and Snapchat by developing a feature for Instagram called “Peek” that allows users to post authentic pictures that can only be viewed once. A photo shared via a Peek would have to be taken with your camera in the moment, as you would not be able to upload an image from your gallery, and you won't be able to add filters or edit the photo.
Ikea launched a TikTok livestream where cats and dogs model and demonstrate new Ikea products for pets. The Pet Shopping Network will appear for everyone in the UK on TikTok and showcase pets demonstrating Ikea's 29-piece pet furniture range.
Sam's Club is planning to launch an online shopping portal in Hong Kong within the next two months, giving the territory access to its products via e-commerce. The service will include free delivery for purchases over 599 yuan ($83).
Amazon raised warehouse worker wages to $15/hour five years ago, but today half of workers surveyed told researchers they struggle to afford food and rent. Amazon called the researcher's methodology “deeply flawed” and said the company had tried to raise its concerns with the study’s authors but never heard back.
Lots of layoffs this week… Amazon laid off more than 100 customer service reps, Walmart let go of hundreds of corporate staffers and ordering employees across the US and Canada, Gopuff laid off 6% of its staff, and Indeed laid off 8% of its workforce.
Remember that former diversity program manager at Facebook who stole more than $4M from the company through fake business deals in exchange for kickbacks? I first reported on Barbara Furlow-Smiles in December of last year when she pled guilty to the theft. Well, last week she was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for her scheme.
In the world of corporate turnover… The chief of Amazon Web Services, Adam Selipsky, is stepping down next month after a three-year term to be replaced by Matt Garman, a senior VP who has overseen sales and marketing at AWS. Also, eBay's VP of Global Communications, Michelle Friedman, departed the company to take on a role at Samsara, a cloud platform built for tracking and analyzing data from physical operations.
Meta is shutting down Workspace, a version of Facebook that had been built to enable communication among business teams and organizations. Sources say that it will be business as usual on the platform until August 25, 2025, and then it will be read-only until May 2026. Meta is recommending Zoom-owned Workvivo as a migration-ready alternative.
Ted Baker Canada is holding store-closing clearance sales across locations in the US and Canada after filing for bankruptcy in April. As of May 10th, online shopping is no longer available and all sales are final across the company's brick-and-mortar retail locations.
Sezzle, a US-based BNPL service, partnered up with Celerant Technology, a POS system for retailers, to offer a BNPL option when checking out in-store . The two companies had partnered in 2023 to offer BNPL options online, and now the solution is being brought to brick-and-mortar stores.
BuyBay, a Dutch recommerce platform, is launching a SaaS product using its own recommerce software. Retailers and manufacturers can now resell unreturned products from their own distribution center, which helps reduce CO2-emissions and increase profits.
Setapp Mobile, a subscription-based alternative to the Apple App Store that's now possible thanks to the EU's Digital Markets Act, went into invite-only beta last week. The new app store allows customers to play with a range of apps without being hit with reduced features, ads, options to upgrade, and without spending money on something they may not use. The biggest challenge with the Setapp iOS store is getting the app installed on your iPhone, which involves following a link, installing software, and then activating it — a process made intentionally cumbersome by Apple.
Avalara expanded its partnership with Shopify by joining the Shopify Tax Platform. Avalara has powered tax calculation for Shopify Plus customers since 2015, and now through the Shopify Tax Partner Platform, the company can serve all Shopify customers with their global tax compliance tools.
Walmart delivered 4.4B items the same day or next day, beating Amazon, which said it did 4B items in one day. Walmart's advantage is that it uses stores for its same-day deliveries.
Plus 9 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Gorgias's $29M Series C-2 round, which it plans to use the funds from to launch its new AI Agent.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.

 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 

The Patriarchy Paradise is a series of short smut stories that focus on concepts & kinks like Free Use & The Patriarchy. I was inspired to create this series thanks to the Tales from the Oedipal Zone series, which was created by Squelchapron in his "freeusecaptions" Tumblr. That later got expanded on by crazydorian, my other inspiration came from the reddit user u/IntendantTradwife who created subreddits such as the now banned FuckingEvil & FuckingFascists. As well as other similar subreddit like Churchofmen, MisognynistLife, 1950sHouseholdWives, PoliticsPlay among many others similar subreddit. Thanks to the nature of some of my inspiration, I feel like I should probably take this time to confirm that there is a limit to my depravity. Some of my inspirations like FuckingEvil are infamous for having content that some might consider to be extreme, distasteful if not straight up illegal.
Admittedly while my content may be more on the extreme side, there are certain sexual acts & content that make me uncomfortable if not just repulse me. While my goal is to be as depraved as I can be, I still have my limits. So if you were under the impression that you would stumble across any illegal content on my page, then you can breathe a sigh of relief. If you're disappointed by that, then respectfully leave my page & seek therapy, I have been on reddit long enough to know a lot of us need it. Since my content will be more on the extreme side, I will post a list of all the kinks that you can expect to see when reading my content. If any of the kinks I list below upset or trigger you then it’s probably in your best interest to avoid my page. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
⚠️KINKS & TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️

• Breeding
• Free Use
• Misogyny
• Political Play
• Rape
• Revenge

PATRIARCHY PARADISE
Patriarchy Paradise is a spin off to my BNWO Revolutionary stories. Set in the year 2025, in the state of Texas. The events of the stories you are about to read follow the adventures of Cain. A year after moving to Texas from his hometown in Virginia. Cain would start a political party that focused on practicing patriarchy with a modern liberal twist. After winning his election by a landslide, Cain would go on to implement several new changes in the state of Texas.
The first of which was making both Gender-Affirming & Plastic Surgery easier to access & afford. The negative stigma around transgender & plastic surgery is dying, now it’s becoming common for people to have the body they always wanted. Another change was the reformation of capital punishment which would end up causing a butterfly effect that ended up changing the whole prison system. Now In the state of Texas when an individual is caught breaking the law & is given a sentence, instead of going to jail or prison they will be given the option of community service as an alternative punishment. Where they will have to spend hours using their body to milk any cock that appears to them.
Of course prison has also had some changes as well, for a start it is now completely legal for the guards to fuck any prisoner they fancy. Women that chose prison can expect to spend most of their day being use as fuck dolls & cum dumpster, getting their holes stuffed & blasted with the Guards cums. As for the men, for the most part prison stayed the same for them, some of the weaker feminine males tend to end up as the prison cum rag. Spending most of their time in prison being used to drain both the guards & fellow prisoner balls dry, jerking off their cocks until they are covered in the semen of their more dominant peers. Male prisoner might be given the chance to fuck a pre chosen female prisoner as a reward for good behavior, however for the most part, those instances are a case by case bases.
Now some of the biggest reforms to the legal system have been the changing of capital punishment & the introduction of the repentment camps. Previously any individual that was given capital punishment, otherwise known as the death penalty would have been put to death. Now anyone who is given capital punishment will be stripped of all their human rights, becoming property of the government & sent to a repentance camp to repent for their crimes. Where the individual will reside until they are brought by another, the same punishment would also apply to any individual who is convicted of a crime & is given a life sentence. As well for any individual who is convicted of being an illegal alien, however, since the latter two crimes are deemed as severe enough to be sentenced with capital punishment. Repentance camp will be presented to the individual as an alternative punishment to life in prison or deportation.
For the most part life in the camp isn’t much different than life outside, despite the fact that they are called camps. In reality the state of texas have been using old abandoned towns to house these individuals, which for the most part the residents have free rein. They are forbidden from leaving the camps of course, unless the individual in question is either brought or their paperwork is finalized & they become a legal citizen in the case of the illegal aliens. For the most part when the adult's residents are not partaking in their required special education, or in the camp hospital getting surgery done on them. They just spend their days restoring the old buildings so the camp is more of a suitable place for them to live. It is illegal for residents to have sex among each other & the male residents are locked in chastity cages to prevent such acts from occurring. Even though the males have their cock locked up, cocks are still getting drained. It just so happened to be the cocks of the guards & average civilians, since it’s perfectly legal for an outsider to come into the camp & use any of the adult residents to drain their balls.
All these changes that I have listed so far are just small minor changes, that are the end result of the biggest & most important change that was implemented. The Introduction to the Free Use System along with the several new laws & regulations that came with it. Under this Free Use system, sexual acts that was highly frown upon like cat calling, Groping, public sex, etc etc. Are now not only socially acceptable but is basically becoming normalized, it is becoming quite common to see a men go up to a woman that he like, bend her over & fuck her, until his balls are empty & her pussy is dripping with his seeds. Thanks to the Free Use System it is completely legal for a man that has been deemed to be worthy to take ownership of any women that he wants. Of course, everything I mentioned previously is under the assumption that the women in question are both unowned & have been registered in the system.

 STORIES 

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

Hello again! I think this will be my final reply. You're right that it does feel like we're talking in circles at this point. I can think of a few of the reasons as to why this keeps happening, and I'll try to elaborate later in the post. But mainly, it seems that a lot of your points involve assumptions that come from either misinterpreting what I've said, or completely overlooking something I've said. Other times, there are just some remarks you make that feel unnecessary. As a result, you sometimes come across as condescending, even though I know that you don't mean to come across that way. I'll explain in further detail with examples later on.
And for the record, I agree that we should just agree to disagree about our respective stances on the third film. We both have our own opinions, and they're both valid. So let's get right into it.

Mariner's myth: Well of course, but the point was, it was a myth. Nobody knew if this had ever happened. If you will recall, Stoick said that the myths consisted of the ships falling off the edge of the world, you can look up the scene. I don't think anyone ever found what was in the Hidden World. XD

Well yeah, obviously none of the sailors would have actually gone down into The Hidden World and returned. That's not what I meant. I meant that sailors have already found the waterfall that leads to The Hidden World. In the same scene you referenced, Stoick also talks about sailors who turned back and reported what they saw. His exact words were, "But those sailors who turn back tell tales of a great waterfall and dragons guarding the entrance to a hidden world." And yes, to them, it's just myth and legend, because no one on Berk has tried to verify any of those sailors' claims. But we as the audience know that those sailors were telling the truth, since we later see the very hidden world they spoke of in the movie.

Hiccup Being New: You make sense, but I was only stating that I don't think it would've been realistic for Hiccup to immediately know everything about chiefing. Of course he has leader experience; I never once negated that--in fact, I used it to bolster my claims. In my opinion a realistic character is one that makes mistakes. A way you can communicate this to the audience is by having other characters question said character, which they did, or have the character learn and grow from the consequences they face, by making said mistakes. These are fundamental ideas of storytelling and this movie does both.

I agree, Hiccup would never have been a perfect chief right from the start, and I agree it wouldn't have been interesting for him to be that. I just expected Hiccup to be more competent than the film displayed. By that, I mean I expected him to at least be as competent as he was in RTTE.

The Hidden World Being a Safe Place: Huh? Do you really think they would've moved there if it wasn't safe?

I'm saying there's no way they could have known if it was safe in the first place without doing some research beforehand. Like you said, from their perspective, the place has only been a myth up to this point. I'm saying that Hiccup having all of Berk just pack up and leave was kind of premature. The smart thing to do would have been to at least verify the existence of The Hidden World before making such a monumental decision to move there.

Being Far from New Berk: Well I presented all the evidence for my claims, quoted the movie, attached clips. I don't really see what more I can do here. But you know, even if you want to say that this part is untrue, does it really matter? Humans can't interact with dragons without bloody murder ensuing, it's really as simple as that.

That last sentence... I'm not even sure how to react to that. The entirety of How To Train Your Dragon has been about proving that last sentence wrong. 😂 And the evidence you provided (Hiccup's ending speech from the third film) disproved your point. The Berkians never agreed to guard The Hidden World. They only agreed to guard the secret of where all the dragons went. I've already talked about this, so it's kind of pointless to keep arguing about it.

Toothless Being an Animal: In my opinion this is more of a fallacy than anything. What is being done here is choosing the lesser likely of the "cause and effect" possibility by ignoring all the evidence leading to it. Toothless reverts INSTANTLY to his wild self when Hiccup first sails to the Hidden World. He's been with humans for 6 years, learned things slowly from them like hugs, how to smile, how to laugh and nearly how to hold conversations. I have no reason at all not to think that he's made to act "tamer" because he IS tame.

This just comes down to a difference in opinion. It's clear that you're of the opinion that it made sense for Toothless to suddenly revert to his wild self, while I'm of the opinion that it didn't make sense for the writers to have Toothless suddenly revert to his wild self.
Just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from, I'm thinking of this less from an in-universe perspective and more from the perspective of the writers, particularly in terms of what would be narratively satisfying to the audience. Toothless is a character in this franchise, so to suddenly change his character in a major way, even if there's a way to justify it in-universe, is kind of a recipe for disaster. Audiences typically don't like it when a character suddenly changes into someone they’re not unless there's a narratively satisfying reason for it to happen. To have the reason simply be that "Toothless is technically a wild animal" doesn't feel like enough of a reason. Regardless, I think we'll just have to agree to disagree about this.

Side note, I will be fully and as politely honest as I know how: I really don't care what TV Tropes says, but if you agree with that, fine I guess. It's just a wiki slapped together by people who know nothing about fiction imo. No Cambridge scholar wrote that.

See... this is one example of what I mean when I say that you make some remarks that come across as condescending. It's a small, rather insignificant example, but it's worth talking about, nonetheless. Like, why did you feel the need to describe the people who put the TV Tropes wiki together as "people who know nothing about fiction"? That just feels unnecessary, and not to mention, the opposite of polite. Saying it's your opinion doesn't make it any better either.

Part 2: Realistic: I'm not sure why you're saying you disagree here, because you listed the scientific aspects of the story that I was saying were realistic. Sure, there's telepathy and stuff like that, but just the fact dragons ca breathe fire is technically fictional. Dean DeBlois specifically said, as far as I know, that he did not want magic in this series. I was specifically talking about purely-fantastic things. Telepathy is technically not even considered fantastic, believe it or not. Arguing that the locations don't exist does not make this series fantasy. It makes it fictional. fictional meaning - Search (bing.com)

I feel like arguing over the definitions of fantasy and fiction is just semantics. And regardless, How To Train Your Dragon definitely qualifies as both fantasy and fiction. There's no escaping the fact that HTTYD counts as fantasy, as the entire franchise is built around dragons, a type of mythical being that doesn't exist in real life.
Also, this is another example of what I mean when I say you sometimes come across as condescending. There are multiple instances where you've included links to the definitions of common words or ideas. This feels insulting since it makes it seem like you're assuming I'm stupid and don't know what any of these words or ideas mean, so I need to be educated on it, even though these are common words/ideas that most people already know. Like, do you actually think I don't know what the word "fictional" means? Of course I know what it means! 😂 And just to be clear, even if that's not how you intended *for it to come across, it doesn't change the fact that it does *come across as condescending.

World Peace: I have to be honest, I don't think it's rocket science. The idea of world peace is rooted in the concept of exactly what it says: everyone in the world is at peace. Look it up if you want, maybe people have different definitions, but it honestly still changes nothing about what Hiccup said he wanted to do; make it where people and dragons largely or completely get along. If you won't go with the other stuff, suffice it to say that: He had to accept that what he wanted was unachievable. That is in fact what he meant when he said he was busy fighting for a world that he wanted.

Once again, we'll just have to agree to disagree. I'm of the opinion that the world Hiccup wanted to create was achievable, while you're of the opinion that it wasn't achievable. As I previously discussed, this comes down to a difference in our respective worldviews. No one has seen the future, so no one knows for a fact whether or not humanity is capable of world peace. Therefore, believing or not believing in the potential for world peace is a matter of opinion. There's no use arguing about this.
And since Hiccup's world is a fictional world, the story of said world could be written in a way that does end in world peace, or a way that doesn't end in world peace. Both paths are valid. I'm just of the opinion that it would have been more narratively satisfying for the writers to go the route of Hiccup's efforts eventually leading to the peace he dreamed of. If you disagree, that's fine.

If you don't understand it, perhaps you should say that you don't understand it, rather than it's a bad message?

I understand what you're saying just fine, I just disagree with you. I think I've made that quite clear. Here, you're making an assumption about me and my ability to understand what you're saying. The issue here is that you're saying it in a way that makes me think that you think I'm stupid. I'm not saying it's a bad message because I don't understand what you're saying or what the movie was saying. I'm saying it's a bad message because that's what I've genuinely come to believe upon analyzing the film.

Overcrowded on Berk: I have to say that I don't think you remember anything we discussed previously on the topic, because the answer is simple. The dragons are clearly not migrating. If they were, Toothless would have called more than just the ones on Berk, first of all, and second of all, Hiccup and Astrid wouldn't have had that conversation that they keep bringing dragons back to New Berk with the resulting problem of becoming a target. Even if the dragons weren't migrating, the point is still moot: You are referring largely to wild dragons YEARS ago who had nothing to do with the dragons Berk collected. It changes nothing about Grimmel or his motives; in fact, it arguably makes them an even different concern, because Berk wouldn't be able to keep track of all the dragons and they could subsequently fly into danger at the drop of a hat. I feel like this conversation is focusing on far too many angles that it doesn't need to be, and is just resulting in a convoluted mess that's getting way off track. As for Berk having plenty of room, I have no idea where you get that information from when the Crimson GoreGutter knocks down a whole SET of peoples' houses just by bumping into them slightly. They have dragons swimming in their soup. There's no validity to this argument.

The point about the dragons not migrating isn't nearly as clear as you seem to think it is. I'll keep this part short: Unless it's explicitly stated that the dragons have stopped migrating, there's no way to know this for sure. Maybe you're right, and maybe they've stopped migrating, or maybe they continue migrate, just off-screen. The point is , we don't know for sure. If you think the dragons have stopped migrating, that's your opinion, and a perfectly valid one at that. That being said, stating your opinion like a fact won't make it fact.
With regards to Berk having plenty of room, I think the issue here is that we're both referring to two different things when we say "Berk". When you say Berk, it's clear you're referring to the village where the Vikings live. That's not what I'm talking about. When I say Berk, I'm referring to the whole island of Berk. And when I say there's plenty of room to expand, I'm referring to the countless instances where we've seen Berk's enormous forest across the franchise (the films and the TV series), including in the third film itself! Have you forgotten the scene where Hiccup, Toothless, and Tuffnut come across the dragon trap in the forest? If space in Berk's village was so limited, why didn't they expand their village into that forest?

Grimmel: No, that's not what I was saying, it's really quite simple: Grimmel was the straw that broke the camel's back. There was no hypothetical war or anything; it was simply the same cause-and-effect situation that had happened throughout the entire series: They beat someone and then the next threat grows out of the previous threat's fallen ashes, for 6 years straight, risking their lives for no good reason other than to keep the dragons in their houses. If you want to argue the point that there are people out there who'd never learn to accept dragons because they've disappeared into the sea, I can't lie... that's just an unfortunate side effect. There's really nothing they can do. You do not risk the lives of people you love to prove some narrative that goes nowhere.

Hiccup isn't forcing any of his friends or family to fight for him. They freely choose to follow him because they believe in his dream and want to help him fight for it. And what do you mean by "some narrative that goes nowhere"? It's a narrative from our perspective as the audience, not the characters' perspectives. From the perspectives of the characters, this is the fate of their world that they're fighting for. With that last sentence you've written in boldface text, you're conflating two different perspectives, so it doesn't make any sense.
Also, if you truly believe that Hiccup is being selfish by risking the lives of the people he loves, as you've put it, then do you think Hiccup has been a selfish character throughout the entire franchise? Because he's had his friends fighting beside him since the very first film. Part of the issue I have with the ending that was chosen for the third film is that it kind of renders most of Hiccup's efforts leading up to it completely pointless. All the victories he's achieved over the people who would hurt or kill dragons will be rendered irrelevant without someone like Hiccup to keep guiding the world towards peace and co-existence. If Hiccup were to abandon his role, there's an extremely high risk that civilization will eventually revert back to the way they were when Vikings fought dragons, since the majority of the known world hasn't learned to treat dragons with respect and compassion yet. You do not abandon the battle between good and evil just because you know evil will keep coming back. If anything, that's more of a reason to keep fighting. Put another way, as the age old saying goes, "All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing."

Also why did you use some of my quotes in your argument without saying it was from my argument? Such as when you said, "the explanation was clunky etc. etc.", lol. I don't get it. Maybe I just forgot what I wrote.

I was just trying to explain using the same metaphor that you used. I guess I thought it would be easier to convey what I was saying?

Condescending: Definitely not my intention, and I was well aware you'd try to use it against me. A straw man is simply a distraction. This was not intended as a distraction because I was attempting to apply it to the things we said. And furthermore, I was trying to say that almost EVERYTHING in this whole argument has now become a straw man, because each of the things we're focusing on now has nothing to do with the main point: Why did the dragons leave Berk?
"Snotlout is flirting with someone", how does that qualify as a straw man when it literally is what the argument originally was? He IS flirting with someone, and I was saying that he does it in almost every installment of the series, therefore it is not out of character. In fact, this one is more half-hearted than the majority, because he's not even flirting with Valka, which is casually ignored here.

The definition of a straw man goes a bit deeper than that. It's where someone intentionally misrepresents an argument to make it easier to attack, then attacks that weaker version of the argument instead of the real one (i.e. attacking a straw man instead of a real one). It feels like many of your counterpoints to the things I've been saying aren't actually counterpoints to what I was saying. Instead, they seem to come from misinterpreting (and therefore misrepresenting) what I was saying, which is why I brought up the Straw Man Fallacy at all.
For example, you seem to have conflated two different points I was making about Snotlout. I was so confused when you did this, that I couldn't help but come to the conclusion that you were intentionally conflating the two arguments in an attempt to employ the Straw Man Fallacy. For the record, I don't believe this anymore, at least with regards to this example. I think you genuinely just made a mistake.
When I brought up the fact that Snotlout has grown as a character, becoming less insensitive and more sensitive throughout the films and TV shows, I brought this up as proof that it didn't make sense for him to be insensitive in the third film. Specifically, I brought this up to back up my point about it making no sense for Snotlout to make the "Who died and made you Chief?" joke. When I brought up Snotlout's character growth, it had absolutely nothing to do with the separate point I was making about Snotlout and Valka's interaction being cringe-inducing.
Looking back on one of my previous posts, I think I see where the confusion may have begun. At one point, you stated: "As for him being reset, I'm not sure why we would think he was reset in HTTYD 3 but not in 2. All he was doing in that one was fawning over Ruffnut."
I then responded to this with: "I don't mean to be rude, but I really think you should rewatch the second film. At the end of the movie, when Gobber declares, "The Chief has come home!", Snotlout is one of the people cheering the hardest for Hiccup, clapping and doing fist pumps. Can you picture early Snotlout (like from Riders of Berk, for example) doing that? Back then, he was always envious of Hiccup and always tried to undermine him at every opportunity. But Snotlout had grown so much that now he was one of Hiccup's biggest supporters."
When I made that reply, I was specifically responding to the first half of your comment where you said, "As for him being reset, I'm not sure why we would think he was reset in HTTYD 3 but not in 2." To be as explicit as possible, I was trying to say, "We would think he was reset in HTTYD 3 but not in HTTYD 2 because HTTYD 2 doesn't contradict Snotlout's character growth (cue the example about him cheering for Hiccup and how that contrasts with his younger self)". I'd effectively just ignored the second part of your comment, where you said, "All he was doing in that one was fawning over Ruffnut." I think the confusion occurred because you assumed my response was directed at the second half of your comment about Ruffnut, not the first half. To be fair, I could have been more clear about exactly what I was responding to by not even including the second half of your comment, so I partially share the blame for your misunderstanding.
Skipping a head a bit:

What takes you several months to type, I type in a day. I don't feel the conversation is beneficial to you anymore, if it ever was. It seems to affect you personally. You honestly don't even have to respond to the other stuff in this particular reply if you wish; I'm perfectly fine with saying farewell to this particular conversation, just like Hiccup.

Do you understand what I mean when I say you tend to assume things and end up coming across as condescending at times? Why did you feel the need to say, "What takes you several months to type, I type in a day"? It's almost like you're trying to assert yourself as being intellectually superior to me, and I haven't the slightest idea why. And for the record, it only takes me a few hours to compose these replies, which I assume is about the same time it takes you to do the same. The reason why it takes me so long to reply is because I have a lot of other commitments. The worst thing you could accuse me of is some mild procrastination.
Going back to your Conclusion:

Conclusion: I have to admit, I was going to keep writing here, but after your descriptions of what I said being "hurtful" I'm not sure I want to continue. Lengthy prose has been great and all, but I've come to realize that it doesn't always make good arguments. (for either of us) I did enjoy talking to you, but I have grown to find that it's become less of an educational exercise and more of a stressful and incessant banter that you do not like. And you know what? That's fine. It's alright. There are plenty of people who agree with you, just like there are plenty of people who agree with me. There are people who LOVE movies I hate, movies or books that I hate are praised by critics and audiences alike, but it just doesn't matter. As long as you can explain why you don't like it, or why it saddened you, that's what's relevant to you as a person. I'm not one who changes my opinions unless I was unsure of them to begin with. At one time I think I was that person, but that was because I looked for a long time before I started speaking on something. The same holds true today. People who do not share the same opinions can be friends, and I think you're probably a very nice person to talk to. You and I only know each other as far as this very conversation, and until when or if we actually get more information on each other, if we had a mind to, I don't think we ever will really understand each other. But you know, again that's okay. There are plenty more people who you can talk to. My opinion of this series is never changing. It makes me happy, and it pains me to see people that are angered and saddened by something that makes me happy, but that's just way the ball drops sometimes. I can't be so naive to hope that I can teach people to love something; I can only hope that they learn, grow, or take SOMETHING from the positive side of things I interpret, because some people are like that. These conversations have only gotten longer and more straw man-y with the amount of branches as they go on. My final statement is: Agree to disagree: I respect your opinion and I respect you.

Honestly, I couldn't agree more with this entire section. I've also enjoyed talking to you, despite any of the friction that's occurred in some parts. We're both entitled to our own opinions, and that's absolutely fine. I want to say that I'm genuinely glad that you enjoyed How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and I'm not trying to take that away from you. I just hoped you'd be able to see where I'm coming from.
As for the part about things starting to become hurtful, it's clear from the way you write your prose (even in this recent section that I'm quoting) that you're assuming I'm just a hater or a killjoy who's trying to see problems where there aren't any, and as a result, you seem to (unintentionally) be talking down to me in some sections. That's the only part of this entire interaction that bothers me. I want to make it clear, your disagreeing with me on the film itself doesn't affect me at all. I respect you and your opinion as well. The reason why I criticize How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World so harshly is because I hold it to a high standard; that is, the same standard set by the first two films. I love this franchise dearly. It was a big part of my childhood and the lessons I learned from this franchise up to the events of How To Train Your Dragon 2 helped shape me into the man I am today. I basically grew up alongside Hiccup. He's one of my childhood heroes. So when I watched the third film and saw it deliver a message that was contradictory to the lessons I'd previously learned from this franchise, I'm going to be honest, it felt like a betrayal. I wanted to see Hiccup succeed. I wanted to see him achieve everything he'd ever dreamt of and more because if anyone deserved it, it was him. So when that didn't happen, I couldn't help but feel disappointed and sorry for him.
I want you to know that regardless of any misunderstandings we may have had, I'm incredibly grateful for this interaction. You've given me a gift. Up until now, I've never really had the chance to get any of this off my chest. I'm certain that I'll be better for it. So thank you, and I hope you have a great life.

This comes from Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups: A Collection of Outstanding Dissertations and Monographs, "Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism and the Soka Gakkai in America: The Ethos of a New Religious Movement", Jane Hurst, 1992, pp. 204-205 and 235. Keep in mind that "NSA" was the earlier name of the current organization "SGI-USA", and that Hurst tends to take an extremely sympathetic, uncritical view of the Dead-Ikeda cult.

So in spite of the way it looks on paper, NSA's organization does have the small-group, personal quality that Gerlach and Hine say is the key to movement success.

I wonder how she would regard the SGI-USA's assigned (non)discussion meeting scripts. Where's that "personal quality" in reading off something you've been ASSIGNED rather than designing it for yourselves?

An essential element is the charisma of NSA's leaders. Theoretically, charisma is an event which takes place between a leader and a group. Charisma exists only as it is perceived in someone by others and cannot be artificially produced.

The flip side of this, of course, is that you'll often find that "outsiders" aren't at all impressed by the supposed "charisma" of people addicted to a cult; this is an indoctrinated view that must be adopted via the communal abuse that exists within this community of cult believers, who are so dedicated to "unity" (aka "conformity"). What gains an SGI member admiration within the Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI is very often something that is not highly regarded at all within mainstream society, as you'll see below in the David A. Snow anecdote.

It is a wholly subjective designation. In the case of NSA, leaders seem to gain charisma in the process of exercising their office. Perhaps this is partly the result of participating in an organizational structure headed by a charismatic President, which the first three Soka Gakkai Presidents clearly were.

Or not - nobody's ever accused Makiguchi of being "charismatic". This whole persona is something that was imported from Japan; it's an aspect of Japanese culture that really doesn't fit very well in American culture, but nonetheless is emphasized within the Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI, which has always been a Japanese religion for Japanese people. At the point this was written, there was still a LOT of Japanese-language terminology in use within SGI, effectively cutting SGI members off from the public, who did not understand their language.

NSA members would say it is the power of the Gohonzon. In fact, members themselves gain charisma by participating in various NSA activities, such as street shakubuku, giving experiences, or taking part in culture presentation.

From related research, David A. Snow identified these "NSA activities" as "performances" that were carefully scripted and choreographed - a "dramaturgical", or "theatrical" arrangement - for "experiences" here and "discussion meetings" here. A Japanese scholar described the Soka Gakkai's "discussion meetings" as "intensive indoctrination courses", and he wasn't wrong.

Someone who has this charisma is described as "incredible, full of energy, dedicated, creating happiness." It is difficult to explain how this spontaneous quality appears in such structured circumstances, but it does.

Only if one is unwilling to look at the obvious focus toward that end within the indoctrination. As I said, Hurst is a bit of a Dead-Ikeda-cult cheerleader.

Gerlach and Hine say that, in movements, charisma is communicable; and that seems to be the case here.

Note that it apparently doesn't occur to her that she's simply seeing another manifestation of "monkey see, monkey do", with SGI members copycatting their leaders, and SGI leaders copycatting their leaders.
"Charisma", as defined within SGI, has the characteristics of a façade, a performance in which a given individual adopts the idealized persona defined within the cult in order to impress other (both within the Dead Ikeda cult and without). The individual is praised within the cult for how much they adopt this idealized persona; behaving in a manic, effervescent manner is described and praised favorably as "youthfulness" and as demonstrating a "high life condition", for example. The Soka Gakkai believed that using the precious members' sincere contributions for kosen-rufu to build special, extremely expensive facilities reserved exclusively for Ikeda would "increase his charisma" (and then there's Ikeda's "chair dominance"), so you can see that, within Ikeda's cult of personality, there's a WHOLE lot of trickery and manipulation going on, all in the name of increasing Ikeda's "charisma". Ikeda was ALL about appearances - HIS appearance in particular. Useless wanker...
You can see how this focus on "appearances" has perpetuated within Ikeda's stupid cult:

[Top SGI-USA leaders] then went off on how when we create these big-ass meetings, we shouldn't have to look into the crowd and see, and I quote, "A bunch of old-ass motherfuckers" The words of my "superiors", not mine. I think this is when they brought up the idea of 50K to my co-leaders and me.
The way they talked about having "old-ass motherfuckers" in the crowd is like they almost don't like having anyone over 35 in the crowd, whether they look their age or not. Their willingness to please their Japanese counterparts to have "youth" just proved to me that not only do they LOVE and develop a pedophile-like attraction to youth, but at the same time, they straight-up HATE "old" people. Their expression for disdain is almost as if old people were the cancer of all the meetings that were taking place and that any effort made to leave them out should be executed immediately. Source

All about the appearances...
From the related endnote:

(5) One former NSA leader clearly had lost this charisma several months after dropping out of NSA. He seemed to be a different person, his energy and manner subdued. His life force, as NSA would put it, was at a low ebb, especially as compared to his vitality as an NSA leader.

I have thoughts about that verdict, but I'll wait until the end.
What actually happens in real life is that the person who starts spending a lot of time in the Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI within the community of the Corpse Mentor culties will begin to adopt their mannerisms, as is typical within groups, and to someone who is familiar with what these are, it's quite obvious, as you'll see from this observation by David A. Snow, in his book Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups: A Collection of Outstanding Dissertations and Monographs, "Shakubuku: A Study of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Movement in America, 1960-1975", 1993, pp. 147-149; I may need to expand on this in a later post. For background, Snow joined NSA as "an active participant observer for nearly a year and a half", and has this to say about the effect of his involvement on his wife:

Finally, I want to acknowledge the enduring patience and support of my wife, Judy. When I was contemplating prospective dissertation topics nearly twenty years ago, she indicated that she had no strong feelings about what I studied except for one thing. "Don't study a group of offbeat, religious zealots," she said. I did, at least from her perspective, and she paid for it dearly. For the better part of a year and a half she spent many weeknights and most weekends alone as I was out doing my field research. It was not much fun for her, especially when she was badgered about joining the ranks, but she grit her teeth and endured, knowing, or at least hoping, that this preoccupation of mine would pass in due time. It did, of course, but not without her patience and support. - from 1992, in the Preface, pp. x and xiii

Snow had some interesting "guerrilla resistance" techniques he came up with to maintain his image as an all-in member of the group while NOT participating in their zealotry - I'll give that its own post because it's kinda hilarious.
But here's something he noticed:

Given the emphasis that is placed on being a "winner," it is reasonable to wonder to what extent are members actually "winners" in their respective lines of work. That is, to what extent do they adhere to the directives and instructions outlined above when engaged in the mundane activity called work?
This is obviously a difficult question to answer, for it was well-nigh impossible for me to observe members at work. And even if I had attempted to do so, my observations would have been suspect in that my mere presence and their knowledge of what I was up to would have probably functioned as a cue that they were in a movement-related situation (any situation in which two or more members are knowingly in the presence of one another) and thereby compel them to attend in part to their membership role.

That in itself indicates a high degree of communal abuse, which is commonplace within high-control abusive community like the Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI - the fear behind getting caught not being "on", of being seen letting your mask drop by someone who might call you out to your SGI leaders.

As a consequence, it would be most difficult to generalize about the behavior of members beyond movement-related situations without relying on various subterfuge and perhaps unethical techniques.

The glasses + false mustache disguise.

There is, however, another possibility: that is when the participant observer accidentally comes upon another member or presumed member engaged in work, but who has no knowledge of the participant observer's membership. This opportunity presented itself to me quite by accident one afternoon during my tenure as a member, and was described in my field notes as follows:

My wife and I stopped at a McDonald's establishment in Santa Monica for an early dinner. While waiting for our order, I mentioned to her that I bet the fellow waiting on us was an NSA member. Even though I had never seen this fellow before, I sensed that he was in NSA because of the way he conducted himself. That is, he looked, acted, and talked as if he were in NSA. He spoke in short choppy and exuberant sentences - a parroting of Mr. Williams' style of speaking.

Americans don't typically speak in that manner, for example - it's an affectation developed through spending time around others similarly affected. Their leaders adopt the mimicry first; this then spreads through the membership - I saw it myself many times. This person noticed the same thing; several individuals in the comments there confirmed the phenomenon.

He worked at a frantic pace, moving around in an exceedingly quick manner. To be sure, most everyone at McDonald's scurries about when busy, but this guy was ahead of the pack. NSA members also scurry about, always making haste. He was also exceptionally pleasant and well-mannered. And he wore an enormous grin and seemed most happy - again like many NSA members.

So upon returning with my order I asked him if he was in NSA. Sure enough. He extended his hand, flashed an even more radiant smile, and asked what chapter I was in. We spoke for a minute and then parted.

Although one might question whether this outward appearance and behavior - the super smile, exuberance, and excessive animation - are reflective of an inner state or merely reflective of an attempt to project a certain image, an image suggestive of competence, happiness, and "winning," the important point is not whether it was a sincere or insincere presentation. Rather, what is significant is that this fellow's behavior suggests that at least some members take the above direction and instructions seriously and do, in fact, attempt to act like "winners," presumably in hopes of furthering both their own interests and those of NSA. And this is especially significant in light of such additional directives as the following:
To practice True Buddhism means to develop the attitude and ability to become the best worker, the best student, the best son or daughter.
For an NSA member to be truly worthy of the title, he should strive to be victorious and successful in society. Through this purpose, he shows other people the power of the Gohonzon.
NSA, just as good Calvinists, thus places a premium on "winning" in one's daily life. But unlike the followers of Calvin, it is not to win the favor or good grace of God; rather, it is to win the favor and respect of the larger public within its society of operation. - pp. 147-149.

Is the SGI still telling the members to consider themselves "ambassadors of the SGI"? SGI clearly expected all the SGI members to continue their performance in hopes of impressing others with how superlative they are - SGI leaders used to tell the members that their "high life condition" would draw people to them who would ask what it was that made them so different, what they did that created that result, and this was supposed to open the gates to widespread shakubuku. (It didn't.)
Now, back to the Hurst account at the top - her description of the former NSA leader here:

(5) One former NSA leader clearly had lost this charisma several months after dropping out of NSA. He seemed to be a different person, his energy and manner subdued. His life force, as NSA would put it, was at a low ebb, especially as compared to his vitality as an NSA leader.

I think we here at SGIWhistleblowers have a VERY different perspective on what was going on with that former SGI leader. Once you become disillusioned enough with the cult that you leave, you will have lost confidence in its teachings and recommendations. And let's face it - pretending to feel a certain way in order to project an image that has been assigned by others, that can feel exhausting, particularly for introverts! In fact, many describe feeling utterly exhausted by the time they finally decide to throw in the towel on the Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI - as explained here: "I did the right thing by leaving, because I couldn't have 'tried harder' or 'chanted harder' or done 'more responsibilities' by the end - I was absolutely burnt out."
Hurst doesn't even consider the possibility that this former NSA leader was experiencing trauma in the wake of separating from this consuming group that especially at that time was eating up ALL his free time (as described here). How he might have been in a more introspective mood as he examined what he'd been indoctrinated to do and be as opposed to what HE genuinely felt was right for him to do and be. In a conformity-pressuring cult like SGI ("unity", "mentodisciple"), all the members are expected to adopt a specific persona, identified clearly here (from 2010). They are expected to take Ikeda's self-glorying fanfic Mary Sue avatar and remake themselves in that image, even though it was a fictional persona. Those who are most successful at replacing their genuine selves with this cardboard cult-guru cutout gain the most praise, respect, and status within Ikeda's cult, after all. AND genuinely PHONY. I'm sure that former NSA leader was a much more authentic person, that "charisma" Hurst states that he'd "lost" simply being the cult-approved behavior required by the cult. And he's WAY better off without that!
I don't know about you, but when I finally ditched the dead-end Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI, I became somewhat withdrawn. First, I had no one to discuss my cult experience with (so important to processing what you experienced) because by that point, ALL my "friends" were fellow SGI members and of COURSE they SHUN you when you leave, but also, I needed to figure out who I was, what I liked, and what was important to me. So I started by catching up on some of the things I'd missed out on along the years, from being too busy doing SGI garbage. And a lot of this involved reading, watching different films and series, and just plain sitting quietly with myself. You can see a bit about the challenge that comes when one sheds an addiction like SGI here - and it involves becoming more in tune with yourself. Healing from an addiction requires that you become independent of everything relating to that addiction that colored your behavior, priorities, and overall worldview.

Player pianos are pianos that can play automatically when loaded with a specially formatted ream of paper. These rolls of paper have holes in them, so that as they scroll past the hammers the piano plays the notes. Most models have a variety of levers and switches in order to control dynamics, speed, and articulation. They were fairly popular in the early 20th century, and lost mainstream popularity once phonograph technology developed further. In their day, they actually caused some controversy among companies that published sheet music, for threatening business and de-emphasizing the need for actual piano-playing skills.
But some piano roll artists made a name with pieces that couldn't possibly be played by an actual person. From around 1950 on, we have the works of Conlon Nancarrow, who found that most pianists of his day could not meet the demands of his complicated pieces, so he turned to write music specifically for the player piano. Most of his studies deal with complicated meters and polyrhythms. Many contain distinct voices playing the same line at different tempos, often in odd ratios. On top of this, most of the lines themselves tend to be highly dissonant and hard to actually play. While some of his earlier studies were influenced by jazz - some of them are quite catchy - the later ones are basically just random, and don't really sound like much as a whole.
Marc-Andre Hamelin, already a virtuoso pianist in his own right, has also made a few unplayable pieces for piano roll. His tend to be a lot more friendly to the ear than Nancarrow's polytempic experiments, give or take an assortment of random glissandi and tone clusters. One of his most well-known pieces of this type is Circus Galop. To actually play it would take at least four pianists, preferably on separate pianos, but would still be near-impossible to pull off faithfully because of the precise, multi-octave glissandi. While tamer than Nancarrow in terms of consistent tempos, it does throw an occasional polyrhythm around in the faster sections. Many internet users have created their own pieces in this vein, thus creating the genre of "black MIDI." I like it when people create a genre without knowing it. Especially if it doesn't take off until long after the founding work was created. And then people look back, and it's like, "oh yeah, that guy made that thing that sounds weirdly similar to what we have now, but it was a long time ago!" But I hate when the reverse happens, and you think you've found something like that but it's actually not. Like this one abstract animation they showed us in History of Animation from, like, the 20's that had an electronic-sounding soundtrack, and I was like, "oh, that's pretty awesome that they were able to make stuff sound like that way back then," but then the teacher mentioned that the soundtrack was added later from like the 60s or something. But even when it is real, the derivative works have often expanded the concept so much that looking back at the original is like, "meh," because compared to the later stuff it's only kind of interesting. Okay bye!This paragraph is a waste of time
This paragraph was a waste of time and space. If you had not read this and I had not typed this you and I could’ve done something more productive than reading this mindlessly and carelessly as if you did not have anything else to do in life. Life is so precious because it is short and you are being so careless that you do not realize it until now since this void paragraph mentions that you are doing something so mindless, so stupid, so careless that you realize that you are not using your time wisely. You could’ve been playing with your dog, or eating your cat, but no. You want to read this barren paragraph and expect something marvelous and terrific at the end. But since you still do not realize that you are wasting precious time, you still continue to read the null paragraph. If you had not noticed, you have wasted an estimated time of 20 seconds. Imagine what you could’ve done with those 20 seconds besides reading this non-productive paragraph. Imagine the things you could’ve accomplished. Imagine the possibilities. But time is irreversible and you still do not realize this. Somehow you have managed still to waste around now 35 seconds reading this stupid, excessive, and long paragraph with your irreversible time. If you haven’t realized that, then you have not yet read the whole paragraph. Even if you did, you still refuse to stop reading this essay. After around 45 seconds, you are still reading this mindlessly and carelessly with your precious and non-reversible time. If you remembered from the first sentence of this disgustingly long paragraph, you would remember that this paragraph was a waste of time and space, imagine if I had not typed this paragraph and you had not read it. Imagine all the things you could’ve done, the things that made you, you. But no, you are still reading this paragraph and it has been around 60 seconds, which is a whole full minute. A minute! Yet you still have the urge and motivation to read this pointless and long essay. Now you have nearly reached the end, you ponder, why am I reading this? Why is the writer making a paragraph so long that I have the urge and motivation to finish this pointless paragraph to prove him that reading is what makes me, me. Then you realize, you have wasted now around a minute and 10 seconds. If you had not make the idiotic decision of continuing to read this paragraph, use that mind of yours to think what you could’ve done throughout your whole irreversible time. You could’ve finished your homework, play with your cat, eat your seal, or you could’ve discovered who made the fire hydrant, if you did not get the reference, you could’ve went and learned something and post it on reddit in the subreddit “Today I learned”, but you still have the urge to read this insanely long paragraph, pondering how I typed this without rest. Then you read this text and see that text over there. Why am I still reading this? How does this paragraph know what I’m thinking? What did I eat last April the 17th? Then you come to the conclusion that you know that this useless and insanely long paragraph would tell you. And you are right, but I did not write this and you have wasted now around 2 minutes. A full 2 minutes. Now, use that intelligence that you have, assuming that your IQ is above 60 and you are literate. Now that you have made it this far, you wonder if you learned anything, but no, you did not get the reference about the fire hydrant and refused to look it up, then you make the decision of reading this long essay with your irreversible time. Since you have made it this far on your long journey, you try have the urge to stop reading. But I bet you cannot finish this paragraph for which you are lazy and want to continue on with your life, but you keep on reading this long, wasteful, barren, and non-productive essay that will not benefit you in any way than making you lose your irreversible and precious time, but that is not even a benefit. Soon you realize that it has been now 3 minutes. A full 3 minutes, now you use your intelligence with an IQ above 70 and ponder about the things you could’ve done, the assignments you could’ve done, the dogs and cats you could’ve eaten. But you continue reading this now nearly 2 paged paragraph. Then you wonder how this is even a paragraph. How am did I make it this far? Do I get a certificate? Why am I reading this pointless and barren paragraph? How does this essay know what I’m thinking about? Then finally, you feel relaxed and accomplished because the essay said finally to make you hyped up that you accomplished reading a nearly 2 paged essay then the paragraph creates a plot twist; You’re no where near the ending. Your insides wince a little while you’re reading this endless paragraph. Wondering if this will ever end. Then you start getting nervous that it’s almost time for bed, then you wonder what you ate for breakfast on June the 9th. How does this paragraph know what you’re thinking about you think? Because when you’re reading a paragraph inside your head, the words are projected into your brain with the IQ above 90 and then the thought process go through your internal organs and through yours eyes and you wonder if this is actually true but it’s really not because all it is non-sense. Then you look at your watch, if you had one, and realize that it’s been a near 4 minutes. 4 minutes, if you expect this paragraph to say the old and customary saying after you’ve discovered how long it’s been, then you’re wrong. This time, the paragraph is going to criticize you why you’re still reading this essay with your irreversible and precious time. Why are you still reading this you ask? Because you are so headstrong and careless, yet you have the urge and motivation to continue reading this essay that it feels like an eternity. If you have made it this far, then it is mind boggling on what you could’ve done with your near 5 minutes. Imagine the things you could’ve eaten ; sushi, sharks, dogs, snakes, cats, fish, humans, dogs, dogs, and many more wonders of this world. Then when you are reading this, you realize that there is no long a wall of text, you realize that you think you’ve made it to the ending and I congratulate you on your epic journey across the wall of text. Yet you have not yet realized, that you wasted a full 5 minutes on this paragraph that feels endless yet it has been ceased.

Your name is- well, I don't know. I'm not your dad. You're a Soldier, Firefighter, Medic or a Nurse just in general someone who in case that there's an outbreak of a deadly gas attack on NYC can be called up to fight for the people and destroy the cause of said gas attack. This is the basic rundown of "The Division" and "The Division 2". A bunch of people who wear a special watch that notifies them if they're needed and that happens when NYC is attacked.
Now, this game takes inspiration from it and does play in the same time, but this time you're looking for specific people: Ghost Recon members. Ghost Recon is a special operations group of combined militaries that mainly does Recon, but on their mission to find out the source of this attack they go missing. Now it's up to you and a small team of people who have been contacted by a Ghost Recon member to look for these people. You'll be equipped with weapons, armour, said watch and a load of stuff while working with the others, essentially putting pieces together and then regrouping in a base you can pick the location for.
Next to just being able to pick your base's location you'll also be in charge in terms of how to approach situations, tactics, weaponry, expanding your arsenal, who to take with you and whose abilities you might like or dislike in your team or just how to look for these Agents you're looking for.
Of course you'll also be able to get the drippiest operator in the world with many outfits (either from me or from your own refs) being made available, after all (at least how I want it) this plays a little bit in the future! And thus these incredible watches or s different sense of fashion will still be elaborated.
So, when you come into my dms I don't ask for a lot. I'm asking of you to be a competent roleplayer, capable of posting 5-8 sentence long paragraphs and respond at least once a day. Some knowledge of the two universes would be great, but it's not needed. Also come with an idea of who your character is in mind, and NO, being overly edgy, "rough soldier"-ish or already some sort of spec-op isn't ideal.
Either way- I'll be seein' ya!

THE BIZARRE WEST
ADVENTURE, ACTION, COMEDY, MYSTERY
# 1 Arc. introduction to the world.
Chapter 1: the Good & the Bad
Page 1.
Panel:
Narrator: Continent, shaped by a long history of corruptly led divided nation states, struggling over dwindling resources and limited living space.
Page 2.
Panel:
Narrator: Frontier alone, still stands proud as the unyielding dwelling place of humanity.
(Visual: Double spread of the frontiers tall wall and countless buildings surrounding it.)
Page 3.
Panel:
Narrator: Daring adventurers venture beyond the secure and far reaching walls off the Frontier. Exploring uncharted territories where no human has tread before.
SFX: Gallop, gallop, gallop!
(Visual: Four horsemen riding outside of the frontiers gates.)
Page 4.
Panel:
Narrator: An untamed land in this ever expanding world. Where danger lurks in the corner of the eye all the time.
Panel:
This vastly unexplored area with its bizarrely grown nature and inhabitants, is known as…
Sfx: YAAH! Giddy-up!
(Visual: Four horsemen riding towards something, Taking off in unnaturally fast speed. )
Page 5.
Narrator: The Wild World!
SFX: Chuku chuku chuku… TOOOT TOOOT!
(Visual: a Long Train moving forward on its tracks in a dangerous scary looking mountain-scape. The train is heading into a huge skull shaped mountain with a large tunnel going inside its “mouth”.)
Page 6.
Panel:
(Visual: We see the inside of the train. We see high class people in suits and dresses sitting in their seats, waitresses serving drinks and pastry inside the trolley.)
SFX: Hahaha. Kling Kling! Magnificent! Sensational indeed!
Panel:
(Then in the next panel we see trolleys full of rangers and showgirls partying inside the bar section of the train.)
SFX: Hohoho. We’re running out of beer here!
Panel:
(Visual: In the last panel of the page: Rangers standing in guard silently protecting a big vault.)
Page 7.
Panel:
(Visual: Finally, a woman standing outside at the back end of the train, contemplating look on her face.)
Woman: What a headache…
Panel:
( Visual: She moves inside of the train back on her seat. )
Woman: Sigh…
(Visual: Woman sat down on her seat, looking outside off the window. )
Woman: My eyes are bleeding again…
Page 8.
Panel:
(Visual: Silhouette of a monstrous figure of a Wendigo preying the train on top of the mountain)
SFX: Growl…
Panel:
(Visual: Close by shot off the Wendigo's face with an expression of thirst.)
Panel:
(Visual:Train accelerates)
Page 9.
Panel:
(Visual:1. Woman looking outside of the window into a dark abyss created by the tunnel.)
Panel:
(Visual: almost fully black panel. Woman’s face is shown through distorted reflection of the window)
Panel:
(Visual:2. Woman’s face with a tension rising in her face)
Panel:
(Visual: Fully black panel)
Panel:
(Visual:3. Woman’s expression changes with a look of concern.)
Panel:
(Visual: Woman is faced with horrorful sight. Wendigo, staring back at the woman with glaring eyes in the dark scenery created by the tunnel.)
Woman: …
Page 10.
Panel:
Woman: Rangers! Rangers!! I saw a Wendigo right next to our train!!
(Visual: Woman barges through the door.)
Panel:
( Visual: Rangers keep partying wildly / guards playing poker at the table.)
Ranger Barry: Shut up woman! And go grab me another beer! Hohohooh!
Guard: What the hell Barry… That’s not cool at all.
Panel:
Woman: I’m sorry if I interrupted your game gentlemen. Could you please go grab it yourself? And while you’re at it could you bring the sheriff here!? I need to speak to someone sober, it’s incredibly urgent!
(Visual: Woman visually confused and in stress)
Panel:
Ranger 2: Drinking sure does bring out the worst side of you. I raise.
Ranger Barry: Agh!

• fold… I might have a small problem, lads. Who cares?

(Visual: rocking on his chair, leaning on the chairs two back feet.)
Panel:
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: Not a problem. Cuz you got multiple…
(Visual: Sheriff trips Barry off his chair)
Barry: Agh! Sorry b-boss!! I mean sheriff!
Woman: …?
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: I’m sorry for that, what happened to ya miss?
Page 7.
Panel:
Woman: Good that you’re here sheriff! I only saw a silhouette so I'm not 100% sure… But I believe it was a Wendigo tailing us!
Panel:
Guards: visual: WHOLE TROLLEY Laughing!! HAHAHAHAAH!
Panel:
Guard: Where could you have possibly learned about Wendigos little girl? From those silly kids dime novels??
Guard 2: You don’t even know what a real Wendigo looks like!
Barry: YEAH! Wanna see what my Wendigo looks like!?
Page 8.
Panel:
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: That’s it Barry!
Visual: “Gets thrown out of the train”
SFX: CRASH!
Ranger Barry: AAAH!
Panel:
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: That’s what you get you sexist-gambling-alcoholic degenerate…
Woman: I’am surrounded by idiots.
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: in his thoughts: I got no praise from my heroism… Why won’t she notice me…
Woman: I don’t usually lecture for free, but I guess you goofballs could use a lesson or two!

• Wendigos have a hunting habit of ambushing unaware humans when they’re guards are down!

And after a brutal surprise attack with their sharp spear like horns and inhumane physicality makes fighting back useless…!
-They feast on raw human flesh!
…
Panel:
I am the author of this book and I'm here on research purposes on Wild world beings.
I would like to believe that I’m qualified in this matter, sir.
( Visual: Shows her book of wild world beings )
Page 9.
Panel:
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: God damn… Y'all just assumed because she's a wealthy, privileged high class woman that she doesn’t know about monsters living in our world!? Shame on all of you… Damn wendigos here, huh…
Panel:
Ranger: -But sheriff! This is not their usual place of hunting!
-That’s true, they are very territorial in nature!

• If I had to guess, they’re just intrigued by the noise the train makes.

Woman: They are not some less intelligent animals…
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: -Animals or not. They all behave the same when it’s the lead doing the talking. Rest easy madame if any trouble comes, we’ll be ready for it, guns blazing.
Woman: …A bullet or two won’t take them down.
Klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik klik…
Visual: Whole room loads up their guns.
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: We’ve got enough for a whole family.
Page 10.
Panel:
SFX: multiple guns firing BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! AGHH!!
Guard: WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!!!
Panel:
Everyone in the room: ?!
Panel:
Woman: They are here!
Panel:
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: Ain’t no wendigo I’ve ever seen wielded a revolver, miss!
-We’re in a train robbery!!
Panel:
Visual: Rangers firing out from the windows of the train.
Page 11.
Panel:
The four riders keep riding towards the train, firing back.
Panel:
(Visual: Rangers with rifles shooting from the roof off the train.)
Ranger: I can’t hit them?!
Wojak: Binoculars sergeant!
Ranger: Yes sheriff!
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: Hold on… T-T-They Are-!
(Visual: p.o.v through his binoculars)
Panel:
-The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse!!! P-Protect the vault like the fate of the whole world depended on it!!!
Panel:
Red rider: Let’s get this boy! We do this according to the plan, we won’t have to see each other’s ugly mugs ever again!
Page 12.
Panel:
Blue rider: Oh man! It has been so much fun riding with y’all! Don’t know what I'm going to do without you guys!
Panel:
White rider: And here I was just getting used to your ugly mugs, I guess nothing ugly lasts forever…
Panel:
Black rider: I hardly ever cared about you lot.
Panel:
Bluer rider: And look what a sad cruel man you turned out to be!
Black rider: Precisely…
White rider: Be honest now… You “digged” us at least a little bit.
Panel:
Red rider: AAAGH! What has happened to my merciless gang of outlaws?? Wild world’s supposed to turn you into monsters but it made y’all bunch of softies!
Panel:
Black rider: I “dig” exclusively on women.
Blue rider: #Metoo! …Kinda!
Red rider: …Whatever that means?
(Visual: While this conversation is going, Riders are “showboating” casually dodging bullets and firing back.)
Page 13.
Panel:
Red rider: With this loot, you’ll be able to get any “kinda” of woman you like in the world! I’m going to get two! Zehehehe…
Panel:
Blue rider: A-Anyone?! W-What about W-Wendingo’s p-princes?!
Red rider: Eww…
BANG!
(Visual: Shoots at red rider)
Blue rider: I should kill you for that! No disrespect is tolerated towards my princes!!
(Visual: Red rider narrowly dodges the bullet. Is now hanging horizontally from the side of his horse.)
Panel:
Red rider: GRH! We’ll settle this later you weirdo! Keep giving them hell!
Panel:
Gatling man on top of the roof of the train: Don’t let’m board the train!
SFX: BAM BAM BAM…!!!
Page 14.
Panel:
(Visual: Barrage of bullets flying, four horsemen evading the bullets.)
Panel:
Whiter rider: Imma make the opening! ( in a dramatic tone )
Page 15.
Panel:
Visual: Stands up on his horse. loosens his belt.
Panel:
Turns around. Pulls his trousers down. Showing his underpants with a bull’s eye print on his boxer.

• Can’t hit this, you cross eyed rangers! Try ’n hit me if you can with those bent up pistols you got from your mamas house!

Panel:
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: GRRR!!! Don’t let him provoke you comrades! Y'all have a perfectly mediocre aim!
Page 16.
Panel:
White rider: I hate when people growl at me.
Visual: White rider shoots the hat of the sheriff's head between his legs.
Panel:
Wojak Sheriff head of the train: Focus all your firepower on that bastard !! That was my favorite hat… :’(
Panel:
Visual: Rain of bullets flying towards the white raider
White rider: Yikes!
Page 17.
Panel:
Blue rider: HAHAHAH, Foolproof plan, gets under their skin every time!
(Visual: Other riders jumping one at a time into different parts of the train while the rangers are fully focused on the white rider.)
Panel:
Red Rider: Final stop ladies and gentlemen!
Guards: Protect the 5 star class! Do not let them lay even a single finger on the passengers!!
(Visual: Trolley full of fancily dressed up people. Chaos erupts inside the train)
Panel:
Black rider: The time has come for all of you Frontier dogs to be put down.
Rangers: Shoot him! The bullets won’t penetrate him?! Shoot him harder!
(Visual: Trolley full of rangers at the bar section of the train.)
Panel:
White rider: “Phew” - No warm red holes anywhere, love to see it.
Page 18.

• Don’t they actually teach y’all how to shoot straight anymore at the good old ranger academy?!

(Visual: White rider gets on board at the back end of the train)
Panel:
Rangers all together: There he is! Get him!
White rider: I’ll show ya how it was done back in the old guard!
Panel:
SFX: Bang! Punch! Swing! ( three small panels then explodes to one big one with a cool pose from the white rider firing his pistols.)
(visual: Starts blowing through the trolley against hallway full of rangers)
Ranger: Send a message to Frontier! The four horsemen of the apocalypse have boarded the train!
Page 19.
Panel:
(Visual: After clearing out all the rangers inside the trolley… White rider is suddenly stopped by the woman standing behind him holding a gun to his head . )
Woman: Put your guns down and turn around slowly.
-Please…
White rider: This is an unusual position for me… I feel kind of awkward about this.
Woman: Huh!? What’s so embarrassing about this?
White rider: I don’t know!? Perhaps because of the way you emphasised on the please while holding a gun on the back of my head! It gave me a weird sensation that I could, I guess compare to-
SFX: KLIK!
Woman: Now, thank you very much.
White rider: Okay okay you got me. Calm down.
Panel:
Visual: White rider turns around. Intimate stare between the two in a chaotic scene.
White rider: !?
Woman: !?
Panel: Close up.
White rider: You’re e-eyes… They are… Cursed…
Panel: Close up.
Woman: …You’re soul… It’s …H-Hallow…
!!
Page 20.
Panel:
(Visual: White rider gets injured by Wojak the head sheriff of the train while losing his focus)
Panel:
Wojak Head sheriff: Hah! Got ya fair and square now!
Panel:
(Visual: White rider snaps back immediately.)
Whiter rider: That was a sucker-punch you wuss!
Wojak Head sheriff: Gaaah the irony!
(Visual: Wojak is sent flying out of the train through the same window Barry got dished out from.)
Page 21.
Panel:
(Visual: Action scene of other riders gunning and slicing down train full of rangers)
Panel:
Black rider: I despise crowded trains… Let me make some breathing space.
Panel:
(visual: Gets his cursed blade unsheathed.)
Panel:
SFX: SWIIIIIIIING-!
Panel:
White rider: !!!
-Get down!
Woman: ?!
Page 22.
Panel:( Visual: They narrowly dodge the massive flying slash coming through their way cutting everything down in its path. )
Panel:
(Visual: double page for the visual of the vertically half cut train)
Panel: (visual :Rangers shocked reactions.)
!!!
Panel:
(Visual: The whole massive train gets sliced in half cleanly,
The upper 50% of the train is now in the air as the roof fly’s off. )
Page 23.
^
Page 24.
Panel:
Blue rider: …Shiiit… You might have gone a bit “overboard” here partner. I guess that’s all of em…
(Visual: Laying on the ground holding his half sliced hat. Throws it away in the next scene)
Panel:
Red rider: Have some empathy for us you cold hearted bastard! You almost sliced me down there! A little brotherly heads up wouldn’t hurt!!
Panel:
Black rider: Look now who's become soft…
Panel:
White rider: Are you alright woman?
Woman: Y-Yes, thank you…
White rider: I just accidentally tripped on you, don’t get it twisted!
Panel:

• Stay lowkey here, we won’t stop the train. Get off the next stop and people there will take care of you… This wasn’t part of our plan.

Woman: Oi, wait a minute! Don’t you run away from me, train robber! Wait! …Darn it…
Page 25.
Panel:
(Visual: Riders gather around at the front end of the train at a vault full of riches)
White rider: OI! What have I told you about taking innocent lives you lunatic!
Black rider: No innocent lives were taken… I just cut down a few bad apples from spoiling the whole branch.
White rider: Then how come you’re still hanging? You’re the most rotten one out of the bunch!
Red rider: Easy now!
Black rider: …You want to skip our arrangement and have our duel in the middle of this heist?
White rider: I’m down.
Red rider: I should just shoot both of you numbskulls… Maybe that could help us to our gang's first ever successful heist.
Blue rider: Boys! I unlocked it!
Page 26.
Panel:
(Visual:They open the safe and are amazed by the sight of this mythical looking shiny gem)
Red rider: Huh? This ain’t gold?
Blue rider: it ain’t sapphire either.
White rider: Never seen a diamond like this…
Black rider: It ain’t a diamond, nor is it a sapphire. W-Where …did they find this hidden gem?
Visual: Black rider touches the gem.
Page 27.
Panel:
(Visual: That’s when a massive Wendigo attacks. Wendigos' hand smashes through under the train's floor. Black rider gets grabbed and swallowed in one swift movement. Wendigo has a mole-like appearance.)
Page 28.
Panel:
Blue rider: Shit!
White rider: Whoa! Where did that thing came fro-
Red Rider: Oi... !!!
That’s my brother you just snacked…
-Spit him out right now!!!
(Visual: Red Rider jumps on top of the wendigos face jamming his sword in its eye causing both of them to drop from the train.)
White rider: He’s crazy!
Blue rider: Should we jump after them?! What about the treasure?
SFX: KRIIII!
(Visual: More smaller sized wendigos appear above them in the air jumping inside the train)
White rider: We’ve got bigger issues above us! Just worry about getting yourself alive out of this train!
(Visual: -Battle escalates.
-Train malfunctions during the struggle, setting it off its tracks.)
Page 29.
Panel:
(Visual: White and the Blue rider manage to clear out the wendigos surrounding them.)
Panel:
White rider: There's definitely more of them!
Panel:
Blue rider: Yup! the treasure ain’t worth it if you can’t enjoy it with the living. Let’s get out of here and find the others!
Blue rider: Whistles for his horse. SFX: PRIIIII!
Panel:
White rider: Yeah, you’re right… This heist was bad business from the beginning with. As they always have been. Damn it all!
Panel:
X: AHHH!!
White rider: ?!
(White rider hears a woman’s scream)
Panel:
Blue rider: Where are you going!?
White rider: Go! I’ll catch you later!
(Visual: White rider jumps on the other trolley)
Page 30.
Panel:
(Visual: Woman Looking at the massive wendigo straight in its eyes.)
Wendigo: You're a blessed human…
Woman: Ghhh… Let go of me!
Panel:
Wendigo: KIHIHIHIH! You’re mine now! All Mine… Mine! Mine!-
Panel:
(Visual: White rider steps in and confronts a large wendigo holding the woman in its hands. Ominous beams of energy flowing out of the lone rider's pistol, scaring the monster.)
Wendigo: …Mine?
Page 31.
Panel:
White rider: I won’t tell you twice. Let her go…

• Now!

Panel:
Woman: You came?!
Panel:
Wendigo: GROWL…! Mine!!!
(Visual: Stand off between the two. Tension breaks between the rider and wendigo / Both launch at each other.)
Page 32.
Panel:
Panel:
Visual: ( White rider gets stabbed on the right side of his face. Right eye not visible through the blood shed. Fatal wound. Rider doesn’t connect with his own attack)
Panel:
White rider: Hmh!
Visual: ( Rider’s expressionless look on his face)
Wendigo: KIH!
( Wendigo grinning )
Visual:( Both ready to clash again. Wendigo is bound to pierce the rider again. Rider has his gun aimed at wendingos temple )
Panel: Fully dark panel
X: Stand off! - SISU!
Wendigo: ??!?!
Page 33.
Panel:
(Visual: Train gets critically damaged. Time seemingly stops. Energy blasts from the battle turns the part of the train where they were into small bits flowing in the air.)
Panel:
(Visual: Train falls off from the cliff)
Page 34.
Panel:
(Visual: White rider wakes up uninjured. His clothes have changed, he has a beard and longer hair on him. Only wound he has is a snowflake shaped scar on his right eye.)
Panel:
(Visual: Sees a large mountain, reaching the clouds in the sky with its height, covered in the same material as the hidden gem right before his eyes.)
Panel:
Narrator: Vast riches… Gold, diamonds, sapphires. These are good enough reasons for the majority to take on the challenges of the Wild world. Finding even a considerably small piece of gold could be enough to land yourself a place inside the safety walls of the Frontier. -But the most precious gift hidden in the mysterious land was yet to be revealed…
Page 35.
Panel:
Armies have been sent to conquer the wild world and many powerful individuals have tried to tame the land and its inhabitants. Most men met their fate facing the dangerous beings living there. Those powerful enough to survive and strive in the turbulent environment, were instead enchanted by the land… and never left.
Panel:
Narrator: White rider shattered the diamond-hard outer layer of the mountain. As he continued to dig deeper, what he found inside the core of the mountain… Sifted the direction of fate.
Page 36.
Panel:
Narrator: The core of the mountain is believed to have housed the wild spirits of another realm. Now roaming freely all around the world, blessing and cursing humans with bizarre abilities.
Panel:
Decades later, people from the Frontier still talk about this discovery. New generation has grown up since the mystical find. More and more people venture outside of the frontier to claim their share of the divine gift.
-The world is full of cowboys, outlaws and beings from your wildest imagination. Each faction moving towards the unknown and the rewards it possesses.
Chapter 2: The Bizarre
Page 37.
Panel:
Pa : Didn’t know they had written a dime novel about the four horsemen… I heard every kid in the continent reads these.
Mom: Great! Now we’ll have a generation of kids running around in the “Grand terror canyon” blasting pistols and playing cowboys with wendigos…
Pa: That would be a radical generation of kids indeed.
Panel:
Naivi, 4 years old: Wow wow wow… THAT WAS A REAL STORY!!!
(Visual: Whole house jumps up in the air on a snowy hill.)
Panel:
Pa : Heheh, glad that you liked it son! Good luck, I picked this up. Shame some of the pages were torn when I found it…
Panel:
Naivi: But was it actually true what happened, Pa?
Pa : Y-yeah. Probably. Quite close so…
Panel:
Naivi. How did it end? Did the Woman and the other riders survive the train crash? Was the Magical gem mountain real for real?
Page 38.
Panel:
Pa: Well, people tend to have mixed feelings and beliefs about the event and what followed after was even more compli-…
Naivi: Just watch Pa!
Pa: ?
Panel:
Naivi: In a blink of an eye! You and me! We’ll be on our own legendary quest together! Giddy up! Hahahaha!
(Visual: Naivi playing with his fathers revolver and putting Pas hat on. Naivi climbed up on his father’s shoulders, playing as if Pa was a horse)
Panel:
Mother: Give me that! That is not a toy!
Panel:
Naivi: Ma… When can I go ride with Pa to the Wild world?
Momma: I'm afraid your father will be an old timer by then… Being a cowboy is a young man's game after all.
Pa: And I’m definitely past my prime. Heheh.
Page 39.
Panel:
Naivi: AGGGHH! I gotta grow up faster then! Grow! Grow! Grow!
(Visual: Naivi swinging his hands and legs furiously, taking him slightly off the ground levitating.)
Panel:
Pa: Breathe boy… I know it's hard for you to stay still, especially when a great adventure is waiting for you. But I’m sure you will find a much more entertaining company in the future!
- rather than riding with your own old man.
Naivi: But I just wanna ride with you PA!
Panel:
Visual: Pa smiling in Flake family's signature crooked smile with warmness in his eyes.
Page 40.
Panel:
Narrator: Naivis favorite hobby was playing with the snow. Creating snowmen, snow forts, and engaging in snowball fights with his family.
Pa: “Sigh” “This building process is going to take us forever… Every time we make progress, the aboriginals destroy it by the time we get back.”
SFX: Blash !
(Visual: Naivi throwing snowballs at Pa. Ma is also there, building a cute snow structure.)
Panel:
Pa: “It's like one step forward and two backwards…”
SFX: Blash !
(Visual: After getting more and more snowballs slammed into his face, Pa gets slightly annoyed…)
Pa: Oi… Stop tha-!
SFX: Blash!
Panel:
(Visual: Naivi and mama giggling after throwing the snowballs)
Pa: …
(Visual: Pa’s face full of snow only annoyed eyes visible.)
(Visual: Pa throws back a barrage of snowballs to Naivis and Ma’s face in a funny manner.)
SFX: BLASH BLASH BLASH!!!
Naivi & MA: AGGH!

• Whyyy father -Why husband (Visual: Both in overly dramatic tone)

Pa: Never shoot an armless man!! Expect no mercy in the wild once you do that! Even if you were a child or a woman!
Page 41.
Panel:
Narrator: Naivis father was a railroad builder.
-To be specific, a cowboy, who protected the builders from the dangers of the Wild world.
(Visual: Whole Flake family having fun, riding together on one horse driven carriage in a beautiful snowy town’s landscape.)
Singing all together: Yippee yay ieee!! Yippy yay yooo!!! Ghost riders in… the snow!
-Yippei yay ieee!! Yippay yay yooo… Ghost riders in… the clouds!
-Yippei yay ieee!! Yippay yay yooo…
(Visual: people of the town look suspiciously scared of them. Peeking outside off their windows and visually scared in the streets.)
Panel:
(Visual: Flake family sliding all together a sledge going down a hill with look’s of thrill and happiness in their face)
Page 42.
Panel:
Narrator: Naivi took pride in his fathers work. His father often traveled to build a path between the two worlds.
(Visual: Pa leaving for a mission to the Wild World. Momma and Naivi waving goodbyes at the border.)
Panel:
Narrator: He always returned home to share stories from his adventures.
(Visual: Pa is back sitting in his chair. Has bandages on his head and looks injured. Pa telling the family a wild story with a look of enthusiasm in his face.)
Panel:
(Visual: Naivi falls asleep during the story telling with a smile on his face.)
Panel:
(Visual: Ma putting a blanket on top of the sleeping child.)
Panel:
Pa: “This is good news for us actually… So many good men were lost in the previous voyages… but no more.”
“With the new reinforcements, we’ll rebuild the whole railroad in no time”
((( during this time period frontier recruited outlaws to keep aboriginals from destroying the train tracks being built— these outlaws later build their own gangs and towns in the wild world.)))
Mamma: …
(Visual: Mamma looking at Pa with concern.)
Pa: “Sigh.” Don’t look at me like that.
Page 43.
Mamma: How could I not? Despite my condition, I can still see clearly… You’re hiding something and that makes me worried.
Pa: Worrying will do you no good darling. The truth is… It’s time for the final rodeo… Our objective is to clear out and build the first Frontier colony in the Wild world. This journey will be the last one. I promise…”
Mamma: …
(Visual: Naivi listening with concern half a sleep. Not smiling anymore.)
Page 44.
Panel:
(Visual: Edge of the town. Snow storm blowing through the sky.)
Mamma: ...Since the day we first met… I haven’t taken my eyes off you. My awkward train robber.
Pa: I often wonder on the road… How those cursed eyes of yours can still be so full of love. Good bye. Love of my life.
Panel:
(Visual: Naivi looking at his father, holding the tears in from breaking.)
Pa: Naivi…
Panel:
-Now that’s a look that only a brave young ranger could pull! But we cowboys are different breed, free individuals, who aren’t scared to feel or show our emotions. Let it all out son!
Panel:
Naivi: …
(Visual-Breaks in tears.)

• WAAHHH!! I Don’t want you to leave pa!!!

Panel:
Pa: Son…
Page 45.
Panel:
Pa: Let pure imagination guide you on your adventure. Gallop through life like a free wild horse in the blooming nature. Never give them even the slightest of chances to tame your vision. Whatever happens - I will support and love you both… Till hell freezes over!
Panel:
(Visual: Cowboys riding out into a snowstorm. Pa waving goodbye till you can’t see him anymore through the snow-blizzard)
Naivi: Come back as fast as you can ride Pa! I will be here waiting for you-
-Every!
-Single!
-Day!
Panel:
Naivi: I can’t leave alone to the adventure without you on my side!

• Pa!

(Visual: Naivi crying huge tears and screaming his lungs out.)
Page 46.
Panel:
Narrator: 3 years later. One day, as Naivi waited for his father at the border…
Naivi 7 years old: They’re back!
Panel:
Wojak the ranger deputy: “ Sorry kid… “
Panel:
(Visual: Ranger hands him Pas scarf and hat.)
Panel: (Visual: Wojak looks almost unrecognizable from the first chapter)
Wojak:
“ We lost him there.”
(Visual: Naivi’s expression of shock and disbelief.)
Page 47.
Panel:
Narrator: Six years later.
(Visual: Broken wheel of a caravan.)
I don't know, script seems bit odd if you don't know what happens later and rhythm of the story seems all over the place for me. I'm not a native in English either so some of the sentences seem clunky and unnatural. And some other bs. Please tell me what should I improve on and if there is something you like about this. This is my first time trying to write something so please be nice and awful to me. I'll post the rest soon...
If you want to see some of the characters they're at my ig: jasukaj5

When I think I've seen everything, there's always more. I'm reading some of your past unsentletters, well, for the first time. When I wonder when and how you had such thoughts and feelings, I try to remember your words and actions at that time. Some make sense, others don't. I will never know you fully since you are like the expanding universe. My quest will never end.
You don't always send those letters to the persons you write to. That's your nature. You are so confident in your words and emotions that you believe they will reach out to those who are supposed to receive and read them. You know all you need to do is to endure solitude for a while. Then you dream someone you have seen in your dream will understand and embrace your soul. They will turn your spirit, which is currently temporal, into something lasting or even eternal.
In return, you will give them the meaning of life, which is seemingly meaningless in the end.
That's how we conquer the fear of extinction from this world. We will enjoy every moment and present. You must know how the world flourishes with your voice and magic wand.
I always wonder if I am qualified to be in your universe. I'm almost certain that I have good eyes. But they don't work well when it come to you. It was almost a mystery. I tried to figure out why. Maybe because I don't know your past? Maybe you build walls against me? Once I almost concluded that that was because you were so shallow that there was little to see in depth (I'm sorry. It was never so.)
I think you are an enigma, or too mesmerising for me to see you. I tried to keep distance so that I could see you well, which I believed would make you happy. You were not happy, though.
That's a dilemma. Your aura nullifies my eyesight that you love.
You are a visionary that can see things people don't see and show them in a beautiful form. When you want to see better and expect your companions to show something you don't see, I am blind with you.
I'm sorry that I am not confident in myself. I go back and forth, btwn fear and desire, which makes you doubt my wish for commitment.
I'll be honest once for all. Please invite me to your party again, even when my attributes are limited with zero charisma. Coz I want to see what you see with my eyes as well. You don't have to lower your light, but just promise not to close my eyes when I am able to see things with you or your things.
...Sorry that it took time to hit send. I've been pondering my own sentence above "I want to see what you see with my eyes." I think it means "I want to see myself through your eyes." Scary but curious how you see me. I now trust your eyes. You are coming closer to my core by removing my skin little by little so that I can be honest. I dare not to think why you dare to do that. ...See, this is dishonest. The truth is that my mind keeps thinking why you do this, what for. Do you want me to do the same? But didn't you say that you don't want to be analyzed? What does it mean? Are you a coward as well or you don't trust me?
Will we go on that brave journey again, though with no youthful innocence but with adult acceptance, to interpret the dreams we had, to understand the world we live in now, and to finally find the truth we've been seeking?
S.

Your name is- well, I don't know. I'm not your dad. You're a Soldier, Firefighter, Medic or a Nurse just in general someone who in case that there's an outbreak of a deadly gas attack on NYC can be called up to fight for the people and destroy the cause of said gas attack. This is the basic rundown of "The Division" and "The Division 2". A bunch of people who wear a special watch that notifies them if they're needed and that happens when NYC is attacked.
Now, this game takes inspiration from it and does play in the same time, but this time you're looking for specific people: Ghost Recon members. Ghost Recon is a special operations group of combined militaries that mainly does Recon, but on their mission to find out the source of this attack they go missing. Now it's up to you and a small team of people who have been contacted by a Ghost Recon member to look for these people. You'll be equipped with weapons, armour, said watch and a load of stuff while working with the others, essentially putting pieces together and then regrouping in a base you can pick the location for.
Next to just being able to pick your base's location you'll also be in charge in terms of how to approach situations, tactics, weaponry, expanding your arsenal, who to take with you and whose abilities you might like or dislike in your team or just how to look for these Agents you're looking for.
Of course you'll also be able to get the drippiest operator in the world with many outfits (either from me or from your own refs) being made available, after all (at least how I want it) this plays a little bit in the future! And thus these incredible watches or s different sense of fashion will still be elaborated.
So, when you come into my dms I don't ask for a lot. I'm asking of you to be a competent roleplayer, capable of posting 5-8 sentence long paragraphs and respond at least once a day. Some knowledge of the two universes would be great, but it's not needed. Also come with an idea of who your character is in mind, and NO, being overly edgy, "rough soldier"-ish or already some sort of spec-op isn't ideal.
Either way- I'll be seein' ya!

I'm share with all of you. What I do for my vocabulary?
When I find new a word. I note down that word. Then I make a sentence on that word and find synonyms of that words.
And I find more 5 words of that words first latter.
For Example:
"Convocation"
He has organised a convocation for his business.
synonyms:
Conclave
Conference
Assemblage
And five more vocabulary of "C" Latter.
Compelling
Compliant
Composure
Compulsory
Concede
This is my Strategy to expand my vocabulary.

The War Scroll, also known as the "War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness," is a unique text within the Dead Sea Scrolls that portrays an apocalyptic battle between the forces of good (Sons of Light) and evil (Sons of Darkness). This scroll provides insight into both historical and symbolic elements.
Historical Accuracy:
The War Scroll, while containing detailed military tactics and an epic narrative of the ultimate confrontation, doesn't explicitly reference any specific historical event or timeframe. Some scholars believe it could be a product of the community's anticipation of a future messianic conflict or a reflection of their own community's struggles against opposing forces during their time. Interpreting the historical accuracy of the scroll often involves exploring the context of the Qumran community and the turbulent times in which they lived.
Symbolism and Esoteric Wisdom:
The War Scroll goes beyond a mere description of a physical battle. It portrays a cosmic conflict between the forces of light and darkness, reflecting not just a literal warfare but also a symbolic and spiritual struggle. The text emphasizes righteousness, divine intervention, and the victory of good over evil.
Within the study guide, activities and exercises could involve dissecting the symbolic elements present in the War Scroll, exploring the deeper meanings behind the battle tactics and the metaphysical implications of the conflict. Understanding the symbolism could involve group discussions, comparative analysis with other ancient texts with similar themes, and exploring the impact of this symbolic representation on the community's beliefs and practices.
Here are a few activities and exercises to explore the symbolism and historical context of the War Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls:

1. Symbolism Analysis:

Provide excerpts from the War Scroll and encourage participants to identify and discuss the symbolic meanings behind elements like the "Sons of Light" and the "Sons of Darkness," various weapons, and the strategies outlined for battle. Group discussions or written reflections can help participants explore the deeper layers of meaning.

1. Comparative Analysis:

Compare the War Scroll's themes with similar apocalyptic or eschatological texts from different cultures or religions, such as apocalyptic passages in the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible or apocalyptic texts from other ancient traditions. Create worksheets or discussion prompts to highlight similarities and differences in themes, symbols, and beliefs about cosmic battles.

1. Historical Context Exploration:

Present historical information about the era when the Dead Sea Scrolls were written. Discuss the political, social, and religious climate of that time, including the turmoil in the region, to understand how these factors might have influenced the composition of the War Scroll. Encourage participants to consider the possible motivations behind the text's creation.

1. Creative Interpretation:

Encourage creative expression by asking participants to create artwork, poems, or short stories inspired by the themes and imagery found in the War Scroll. This exercise allows individuals to engage more deeply with the symbolic elements and interpret them in their own unique ways.

1. Role-playing or Debates:
   Organize a role-playing activity where participants take on the roles of "Sons of Light" and "Sons of Darkness," debating their ideologies, motivations, and strategies for the ultimate battle. This exercise helps in understanding differing perspectives and interpreting the conflicts presented in the scroll.
   

Interpretative variations regarding the river's crossing in different ancient texts reflect the unique religious, philosophical, and cultural perspectives embedded within these narratives. These differences in interpretation offer insights into diverse worldviews and varying theological frameworks present in ancient texts:

1. Mesopotamian Context:

• In Mesopotamian mythology and literature, the Euphrates River often held symbolic significance as a boundary between the known civilized world and the wild, unknown realms. The crossing of the Euphrates could symbolize journeys into unexplored territories or transitions between order and chaos. This perspective reflects a worldview rooted in the physical and geographical division of lands.

1. Biblical Context:

• In biblical texts, such as those in the Book of Revelation or Old Testament prophecies, the crossing of the Euphrates carries eschatological significance. It may represent a divine intervention or a decisive moment in God's plan, marking the commencement of apocalyptic events. This interpretation aligns with the biblical narrative of divine judgment and the unfolding of God's ultimate purpose in history.

1. Gnostic or Apocryphal Context:

• Gnostic or apocryphal texts often interpret the river's crossing as a symbolic liberation or awakening. It might signify the release of spiritual forces or the ascent to higher consciousness, reflecting a philosophical perspective emphasizing spiritual enlightenment and liberation from material constraints.

1. Greco-Roman Interpretation:

• In Greco-Roman literature, crossings of rivers were often associated with mythological journeys or transitions between realms. The crossing of the Euphrates might symbolize a transition from mundane existence to a realm of mystery or spiritual significance, reflecting a cultural perspective rooted in mythology and cosmology.

These varied interpretations highlight the richness and diversity of religious, philosophical, and cultural frameworks present in ancient texts. The river's crossing serves as a flexible symbol that adapts to different narratives, conveying themes of transition, judgment, liberation, or cosmic transformation based on the unique perspectives of each tradition.
Exploring these interpretative variations allows participants to appreciate the complexity of symbolism within ancient texts and provides insights into how different cultures and belief systems interpreted common motifs like the river Euphrates. It showcases the intricate interplay between religious, philosophical, and cultural elements shaping the symbolism and theological implications embedded in these narratives.
The river Euphrates, a prominent geographic feature in ancient texts, embodies universal themes that transcend specific cultural contexts. Identifying these universal themes helps reveal shared human concepts of transition, boundaries, and transformative events across diverse ancient traditions:

1. Threshold and Transition:

• The Euphrates often symbolizes a boundary between known and unknown territories. Its crossing represents a transition from one state to another, signifying a pivotal moment of change or passage. This theme of crossing a threshold echoes the human experience of transitions in life, moving from familiar to unfamiliar realms.

1. Boundary and Separation:

• As a geographical boundary, the Euphrates signifies separation between distinct territories or civilizations. This concept of demarcation resonates with universal human experiences of setting boundaries, delineating spaces, or marking divisions between different aspects of life.

1. Transformative Events:

• Crossing the Euphrates is often associated with cosmic or transformative events in ancient texts. This universal theme reflects the human fascination with the concept of epochal change, cosmic upheavals, or moments of divine intervention that reshape the course of history.

1. Symbol of Power and Control:

• The river might represent a symbol of power, control, or geopolitical significance. Crossing it could signify shifts in dominance, challenges to established authority, or the assertion of influence. This theme resonates with human narratives of power struggles and shifts in societal dynamics.

1. Metaphor for Spiritual Journeys:

• Across cultures, rivers are often used metaphorically to represent spiritual journeys or quests. The crossing of the Euphrates might symbolize the pursuit of enlightenment, the passage to higher realms of understanding, or the quest for spiritual transformation.

These universal themes associated with the river Euphrates highlight fundamental aspects of the human experience—transitions, boundaries, transformative events, power dynamics, and spiritual journeys. The river's symbolism in ancient texts speaks to shared human aspirations, struggles, and beliefs that transcend cultural boundaries and resonate across different epochs and civilizations.
By identifying and discussing these universal themes, participants gain a deeper appreciation for the profound symbolism embedded in ancient texts and recognize the timeless relevance of concepts such as transition, boundaries, and transformative events in shaping human narratives and aspirations.

1. Historical Context:

• What historical events or societal conditions might have influenced the composition of the War Scroll?
  
• How does the historical context of the Dead Sea Scrolls' discovery contribute to our understanding of this text's significance?
  

1. Symbolism and Esoteric Wisdom:

• How does the War Scroll use symbolism to convey spiritual or cosmic themes?
  
• What esoteric wisdom or deeper spiritual insights can be derived from the portrayal of cosmic conflict and divine intervention within the text?
  

1. Comparative Analysis:

• Compare the themes and symbolism of the War Scroll with other apocalyptic texts from different cultures (e.g., Book of Revelation, The Book of Daniel). What common motifs or differences in interpretation do you observe?

1. Parallelism in Biblical Texts:

• Explore connections between the War Scroll and other biblical texts. How does the language, imagery, or themes in the War Scroll intersect with passages from the Hebrew Bible or New Testament?

1. Community Beliefs and Practices:

• How might the apocalyptic expectations depicted in the War Scroll have influenced the beliefs and practices of the community that produced it?
  
• Discuss the impact of such intense anticipation of cosmic conflict on communal life and religious rituals within the community.
  

1. Cultural Significance of Cosmic Battles:

• Across various ancient cultures, why do you think depictions of cosmic battles and eschatological events were significant? What might these narratives represent in a broader cultural context?

1. Interpretive Variations and Unique Perspectives:

• Explore the diverse interpretations of specific passages or symbols within the War Scroll. How do different scholars or traditions interpret these elements, and what underlying factors might influence their interpretations?

1. Personal Reflection and Modern Relevance:

• Reflect on how the themes of cosmic conflict, righteousness, and spiritual warfare in the War Scroll might resonate in contemporary society or personal belief systems.

1. Theological and Philosophical Implications:

• Discuss the theological and philosophical implications of a cosmic battle between forces of light and darkness. How does this theme intersect with broader philosophical inquiries or theological doctrines?

1. Literary and Symbolic Analysis:

- Analyze the narrative structure and symbolic elements present in specific passages of the War Scroll. How do these elements contribute to the text's overarching themes and meanings? 

These study questions aim to provoke critical thinking, promote in-depth exploration of themes, encourage comparative analysis, and stimulate discussions on the multifaceted nature of the War Scroll's content and its significance within ancient and contemporary contexts.

1. Archaeological and Linguistic Analysis:

- How does the physical condition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the War Scroll, impact our understanding of their preservation and historical context? - Discuss the linguistic peculiarities or unique textual features found within the War Scroll and their implications for translation and interpretation. 

1. Apocalyptic Expectations and Messianic Concepts:

- Explore the portrayal of messianic figures or anticipated saviors within the War Scroll. How do these concepts align with or diverge from contemporary expectations of a messianic figure in other ancient texts or religious traditions? 

1. Impact of Apocalyptic Literature:

- Analyze the enduring influence of apocalyptic literature, such as the War Scroll, on subsequent religious, literary, or cultural traditions. How have these texts shaped later beliefs or inspired artistic and literary works? 

1. Ethical and Moral Frameworks:

- Discuss the ethical or moral implications of the cosmic conflict depicted in the War Scroll. How do the themes of righteousness and wickedness contribute to the text's underlying moral framework? 

1. Role of Prophecy and Revelation:

- Explore the role of prophecy and revelation within the War Scroll. How do the prophetic elements contribute to the text's portrayal of future events and cosmic justice? 

1. Experiential and Ritualistic Elements:

- Investigate potential ritualistic or experiential dimensions associated with the teachings or beliefs conveyed in the War Scroll. How might the community have engaged with these teachings in their religious practices or communal activities? 

1. Literary Genre and Interpretation:

- Discuss the classification of the War Scroll within the broader genre of apocalyptic literature. How does its classification influence our understanding and interpretation of its themes and symbolic elements? 

1. Relevance in Modern Scholarship:

- Reflect on the ongoing scholarly debates or discoveries related to the War Scroll. How have modern interpretations evolved, and what implications do these new perspectives have on our understanding of the text? 

1. Intersection of Faith and Scholarship:

- Consider the interplay between faith-based interpretations and scholarly analyses of the War Scroll. How might religious convictions or theological frameworks influence academic research and vice versa? 

1. Future Research and Interpretative Avenues:

- Propose potential avenues for future research or areas of exploration concerning the War Scroll. What unanswered questions or unexplored aspects merit further investigation? 

The composition of the War Scroll, along with other Dead Sea Scrolls, was likely influenced by several historical events and societal conditions prevalent during the time of its writing, which is estimated to be between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE:

1. Hellenistic Rule and Cultural Influence:

• The region where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found was under Hellenistic influence due to the conquests of Alexander the Great and the subsequent control by the Seleucid Empire. This era saw a clash between Hellenistic culture and Jewish traditions, leading to cultural tensions and a desire to preserve religious and cultural heritage.

1. Political Turmoil and Resistance Movements:

• The Jewish people experienced political unrest, particularly during the Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid rule. This period was characterized by resistance movements, attempts to preserve Jewish identity, and fervent anticipation of a messianic figure to deliver them from foreign oppression.

1. Religious Sects and Spiritual Expectations:

• Various religious sects existed within Judaism, each with its own interpretations and expectations of messianic redemption, purity laws, and theological doctrines. The community associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, often believed to be the Essenes, likely had distinctive theological beliefs and a strong apocalyptic worldview.

1. Anticipation of Cosmic Redemption:

• There was a widespread belief in the imminent arrival of a messianic figure or a divine intervention that would bring about cosmic redemption, ushering in an era of righteousness and divine rule. This anticipation of apocalyptic events and a cosmic battle between forces of light and darkness is reflected in the War Scroll's themes.

Regarding the historical context of the Dead Sea Scrolls' discovery, its significance lies in multiple facets:

1. Preservation of Ancient Texts:

• The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the War Scroll, provided an invaluable collection of ancient manuscripts that significantly expanded our understanding of ancient Jewish texts, religious beliefs, and the diversity of Jewish thought during the Second Temple period.

1. Insights into Jewish Sectarianism:

• The scrolls shed light on the diversity of beliefs and practices among Jewish sects during that time. Understanding the beliefs and expectations of the community associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls helps contextualize the theological and apocalyptic themes present in the War Scroll.

1. Confirmation of Scriptural Accuracy:

• The Dead Sea Scrolls' discovery contributed to confirming the accuracy and preservation of certain biblical texts, highlighting the continuity of textual transmission across centuries and supporting the authenticity of biblical manuscripts.

1. Impact on Biblical Studies and Scholarship:

• The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls revolutionized biblical studies, providing scholars with invaluable primary sources for studying ancient Judaism, the development of biblical texts, and the context in which these texts were composed.

The historical context of political upheaval, religious expectations, and the preservation of texts within the Dead Sea Scrolls contributes significantly to understanding the milieu in which the War Scroll was written. It provides a backdrop against which the themes of cosmic conflict, eschatological anticipation, and religious fervor within the War Scroll can be comprehended.

Hello, everyone! We are 2nd year BA in Psychology students and we are conducting our study entitled “Loudest pleas, clamor”: Making meaning on the hashtag activism of #LigtasNaBalikEskwela.
The researchers' username are listed below:
u/julrecto u/_meongchongi u/Zeal_2221 u/pinkyyycatty
• You are expected to participate in the focus group discussion for #LigtasNaBalikEskwela.
• You can reply and discuss any questions, and freely go back to previous threads to add thoughts from December 27 until Dec 30.
• You can use English, Filipino, and Ilonggo.
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Review the resources below for guidelines on how to participate in the online forum discussions.
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