Aggressive bums on stanmore rd are getting out of hand.

People ruminate on the past, who’s wronged them, and the things that are absent from their lives. People imagine past events as though they are still happening now. They use who they were in the past to define their future.
The issue with defining oneself in the present from your past is that it keeps you bound to the past. This self-imposed limitation asserts that everything about your past determines how you will behave in the future. Your future hasn't been written yet. The decisions you make will continue to shape who you can be.
When you are a child of an alcoholic, you learn from a very young age the signs to look for so you aren’t in the line of fire when the next violent episode occurs. And the feared incident always happens. Consequently, you become conditioned to react to these indications.
As an adult, you see evidence that because bad things have happened in the past doesn’t mean more bad things will happen. Not every slurred speech or stumbling from another person will cause harm. Therefore, you can determine that the past doesn’t have to repeat itself.
Although this may take time to realize, it doesn’t have to. You’re shaped by your past. The good news is, you aren’t bound to it. You can move beyond the difficulties of the past and into something far better. The main reason you don’t have to repeat the past is because you can learn from it.

While we cannot predict the future, we will most surely live it. Every action and decision we take - or don't - ripples into the future. ~ Jacque Fresco

Your Mindset Determines Your Future

You often have feelings and attachments to the past. The past can be hard to let go of, and it affects you emotionally. Yet you have a choice to make, an option to choose a different outlook, a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset.
The fixed mindset is the idea that you believe your attributes and abilities are inherently fixed and can’t be changed. For example, you may think that you’re as smart as you’ll ever be and therefore, that thought process causes you not to even try to learn new things. Since you don’t believe your intelligence can grow with time and experience, then you can’t change, and your future will be the same.
A growth mindset is the exact opposite. This mindset is founded on the conviction that your basic abilities can be cultivated and are malleable. This allows one to grow with enthusiasm, time, and a commitment to improving, learning, and becoming greater than before. With a growth mindset, failures are short-term setbacks, and the process is usually more important than the outcome. So, with a growth mindset, your future is never predetermined. It’s boundless.
The fixed mindset is the most common mindset and the most harmful. So, you need to know which mindset you favor so you can learn from the past and then choose a different future. You can change your mindset just by thinking it through.

The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. ~ Mary Pickford

Reframing Your Past To Better Serve You

Your world is the one you make through your decisions. So is the one you remember from your past. Change the significance of the experiences if what you remember is difficult or negative. Examine the experiences that are preventing you from moving forward and try to see them from a more positive perspective. Reframe your rejection, to believe it was a sign from the Universe directing you to a better place. If you have ever failed at something, consider it a lesson in building resilience for a better future.

Accepting your history serves as a springboard and a means of getting ready for the future once you can no longer imagine a better ending for it. The way you identify who you have been and how you envision who you will be next, combine to form who you are today. Take care of the narratives you accept and write about yourself. Take deliberate steps to embrace the lessons learned from the past and the opportunities that lie ahead. 

These are the components of who you are right now. The gifts that make up your current existence have been your experiences. A clear vision for your life is essential, as you attract what you focus on. Your destiny is entirely within your control. Even if you can't control everything in life, you can still do great things if you accept responsibility, grow from your mistakes, and have a clear vision.

There are times in our lives when we have to realize our past is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it. But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we can change the future. ~ Eleanor Brown

Everybody Changes; So The Future Will Differ From The Past

As an adult, you have experienced enough of life to see that one constant is change. You grow, circumstances transform, people develop. All of this is observable. Therefore, if everybody changes, then the past can’t indicate the future.
Even those around you that don’t seem to have the desire to grow still change. They are based on the circumstances that occur in their life and by the choices they make. Not making a choice is still choosing, which impacts one’s life that doesn’t allow things to stay the same. Thus, despite a lack of growth, the future will differ from the past.
As you develop, how you perceive the past is altered and reframed. You learn from the past and determine ways to prevent unwanted situations. You make informed decisions and take responsibility for your choices, so that you can move forward toward the goals and dreams. Thus, validating that you are creating a better future than your past.
My aha moment came when I realized my past was holding me back because I allowed it to. I embraced both the idea that I had total autonomy to decide in the present and the reality that I couldn’t change the past, only reframe it. Then I choose to forgive anyone who had wronged me, as well as myself for my previous missteps. And you can make the same choice.

People underestimate their capacity for change. There is never a right time to do a difficult thing. ~John Porter

Making Your Future Better than Your Past

As you have seen, in order to improve your future than your past, believe that it’s possible. This may take a bit of courage to overcome your fears and move towards a growth mindset. Here are some ways to help you with this process.

1. Find Your Tribe To Create The Future You Desire

You may have to cut ties with those people in your life that keep you fixated on negativity. The girlfriend who’s always teasing you about the mistake you made years ago has no bearing on the present, except that it keeps your ego in a place of embarrassment every time she mentions it. The people who remind you of your failings or missteps are focusing on the negativity of the past. You may need to spend less time with these people.
Instead, focus on those people who are encouraging, the ones who are excited for you to try new ventures or take a class. This is your tribe, the ones who look at your best attributes and speak positively to you. They remind you of the successes you’ve had, to inspire you to keep moving forward. Make new friends in the areas that you are growing. It's helpful to have someone learning with you to discuss and problem solve together.
Releasing those people from your life that have a negative influence on you is an important step to safeguarding that your future doesn’t resemble your past. By ensuring that you have people who are positive and encouraging around, you help yourself enlarge the possibilities of a better and boundless future.

When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one. ~ Gerald G. Jampolsky

2. Let Go Of The Past And Its Attachments

Fear of loss is a common concern, like the anxiety of losing your job and the grief of losing a friend. The harsh reality is that you will lose things and loved ones. It’s the natural course of life. Nonetheless, being anxious about the future or worried about the past does nothing but keep you from being fully present and working towards your goals.
The fear of loss can cause many to stay in a mode of indecision and procrastination throughout the course of their lives. People grow attached to the stuff in their lives. Things like their profession, their prominence, their income, their lifestyle, etc. To pursue a change would mean relinquishing some or these things that are now associated as part of your life. Because of this aversion to loss, many people choose to put their dreams on hold — continuously.
By becoming less attached to the things in your life, you overcome the fear of loss. This enables you to move forward towards your goals and build a better future for yourself.

Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. ~ Yoda

3. Accepting What Is Stops The Struggling

By learning to be thankful for your current situation, one changes the focus from lack to having enough. This is important from a universal perspective. Acceptance for what is allows peace to enter your life instead of feeling you are fighting just to get by.
Part of acceptance is gratitude for everything you have, which includes any hardships, as they’re there for you to learn something. The fastest way through adversity is to ask the Universe what lesson are you to glean from the experience. Then, you have to get quiet and discern how this situation can teach you something about yourself or how you relate to the world around you.
One of the best ways to help you see all the good in your life is a gratitude journal. It’s easy to write a few items each evening that happened during your day, which you are grateful for. They can be things like the beautiful sunrise you witnessed while driving into work or your child passed their math test even though he struggled with the homework. You have things in your life to appreciate, and this is where you need to focus your attention in order to shape the vision you have for your future.

Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it. ~ Michael J. Fox

4. Small Steps Towards A Better Future

Growth and development don’t happen overnight. It takes time. And you want things to happen quickly as you are impatient with yourself. But you need to be kind, give a little self-care and self-love. Pay attention to the incremental steps you take as you grow.
It took me over two years before I could meditate daily. I wanted to, but I had to overcome obstacles within myself in order to accomplish this goal. First, I set the intention to meditate daily, but I had focus issues. So, I had to work on being able to quiet my mind so that I could focus. Once I accomplished that step, I added meditation to my calendar, because if it’s on my calendar, I do it. This entire process could be frustrating, but I focused on each incremental step, not the end result. Now, I wouldn’t begin my day without first meditating.
So, whatever you are trying to accomplish, set up steps along the path so you can have minor victories along the way. This ensures you will continue to move forward even if you run into a time of struggle. Being able to see that you overcame previous difficulties encourages you to continue until you accomplish the goal.

You need to be content with small steps. That's all life is. Small steps that you take every day, so when you look back down the road, it all adds up and you know you covered some distance. ~ Katie Kacvinsky

Remember, You Are Wiser Now

It’s unnecessary for you to continue suffering just because you were taken advantage of or mistreated by others, often by those closest to you. You have the power to decide to quit mentally reliving the past. Actually, more anguish is frequently caused by your mind continuously playing back an awful experience from the past than by the actual incident.
You are no longer required to assume the victim's role. You're a survivor. And you can determine how you interpret negative experiences from your past. It’s the key to your freedom.
Unlike what some people think, you can be remorseful without always punishing yourself for past transgressions. Make the adjustments and move on. I can attest to the liberating nature of forgiveness, having extended forgiveness to my abusive mother. You don't choose to be forgiving of others in order to excuse or justify their actions. You choose to be free through forgiveness.
It's also important for you to accept responsibility for your own missteps. Since nobody is perfect. You don't have to serve a life sentence that you put on yourself in order to make up for the wrongs you did or the poor decisions you made. Treat yourself with self-compassion.
You can choose to see your past as quicksand or a launching pad. It’s up to you to make use of your experiences as a tool or allow them to be used against you.

Close the door on the past. Don’t try to forget the mistakes, but don't dwell on them. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. ~ Johnny Cash

Moving Forward Believing In A Better Future

You have the freedom to decide how much control you wish to have over your present life, regardless of what has happened in the past. Although it’s impossible to undo the past, you can reframe it and decide how to respond to it.
Belief is paramount to being able to do anything. Confidence in your abilities, conviction in your resolve to constantly move forward, and faith that all your work will make your dreams a reality. Maintaining this belief is important, which is why you need to take pride in the victories along the way.
Every disappointment that you overcame, each circumstance you seized, and the individuals that arrived along the way that you recognized were there to help you. All the success along the way helps you maintain the belief that the future is going to be better than your past, because you are creating it every day.
No matter how awful it was, your past does not indicate your future. The decisions and deeds you commit to today will ultimately shape who you become in the future. Decide to take what you've learned from the past and use it in the present to live the life that was meant for you.

Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay. ~ Simone de Beauvoir

How do I enter this locked door on Metal Island? Almost done with chapter 7 but still not sure on this part of metal island. Does it even open?

warning: long post
i (f22) had a huge fight with my mom a few nights ago. here's what happened: i was working till late at night and my mom asked if i wanted some noodles. i said yes. she came into my room and brought me the noodles. i went outside my room to take some water. i was hungry, so i wanted to eat right away. but then she made a comment on my body, told me that i was becoming fatter. for the past year, i have become very sensitive about my body image, and i have been consulting with a therapist about this. but still, comments on my body easily triggers me. i responded to hear briefly, and then went back to my room. but then the sight of the food made me really nauseous, so i put it away, outside of my room. thinking maybe i can save it for later when i feel better about it. i locked my door, and i cried a little. but then, my mom comes, banging on my door, yelling at me to open my door, and starts yelling about how im ungrateful, and starts cursing me. telling me that i'll regret it. she said a lot more things, but i couldn't hear it since my body completely shut down (out of fear, i guess). i froze and could only cover my ears. she said something along the lines of wanting to call my boyfriend and telling him to stop dating me.
i freaked out. i called my boyfriend and cried hysterically about this, and all my negative thoughts came to the surface. i started scratching my thighs real hard to the point it was definitely self harming, and i started to tell him i wanted to die. he panicked, and started to call my sister (f30, lives in the same house). my sister came down to talk to me and knocked on my door. i wanted to open the door, but my body didnt want to listen to me. i just froze and cried.
i heard yelling from the other room, which turned out to be my sister telling my mom off.
silence. i had a mental breakdown.
my mom came banging on my door again. even worse yelling now. start cursing me again. she started telling me that if i wont open the door, then i wont get to call her "mom" again. i mustered up all the strength i have left and opened the door. a little part in me wished she would calm down and listen to me. she didn't. it became worse once she was inside. she told me "you want me to die so bad, huh? i hope i die tomorrow so you'll be happy!!! you're insane!! you're clearly sick in the head! why are you behaving like a child? just see, i'll die tomorrow and you'll see!" she definitely said a lot more. i covered my ears again, all while crying hysterically. she then stormed out of my room and i guess she cried in her room. my brother (m27) started saying i should go apologize since she's the parent and I'm the child. i only calmed down once my sister and my dad started trying to calm me down and gave me water.
my mom has been ignoring me for 3 days. didn't even want to see in my direction. i tried talking to her (telling her i'm leaving the house) but she acted like i was a ghost. now i'm not sure what to do. i'm scared to apologize because last time we fought, i tried apologizing but she ignored me with my hand still in the air. it really broke me that time. i'm scared of the thought it might happen again.
tl;dr: mom got mad at me for not wanting to eat the food she made after she called me fat. has been ignoring me after yelling and cursing at me, and calling me sick in the head.

“Don’t get off until you hit the ninth floor. No exceptions.”
“But my interview is on 5,” I replied.
“I’ll only say this only one more time. Don’t get off until you hit 9th. No other floor is safe.”
It’s crazy but something about the way he said it penetrated my skull. He was serious. And, he looked nervous, like he had to fight every instinct in his body to say that to me.
The doors closed, while I thought to myself - who the fuck says anything like that?
As I went to hit the button for the fifth floor, some anxiety came over me. I shook it off and pressed it. The guy was probably just off his rockers.
The elevator went up. I scanned my surroundings - a TV bolted to the top corner of the elevator (playing the weather channel), a mirror for the back-wall of the elevator, and some cozy lounge-style music playing. Pretty standard stuff.
“Now arriving at the 5th floor.”
Weird - not sure if I’d ever been in an elevator that announced each floor it was arriving at. I was sure that if I worked in this building, this would get pretty old quickly.
DING!
The doors opened on 5. In front of me was a reception area with a woman seated at the front desk. She stood up from her seat.
“Mr. Davis! You’re early!”
The gentleman’s warning from earlier played in my head.
“We’ll be ready for your interview in a few moments. In the meantime, please feel free to take a seat.”
“Uh, thank you,” I responded. “If I’m, uh, early, maybe I can come back in a few minutes?”
“Nonsense! We’ll see if we can speed things up. He’s been very excited to meet you.”
The elevator doors started closing. I held them open. I wasn’t sure what to do here, but everything seemed fine enough. Granted, the receptionist did seem a bit eager, but beyond that…
From my vantage point, I scanned the office space behind the front desk area. All looked normal - cubicles, folks clicking away at their computer, a kitchen area. Pretty unremarkable.
That is, except for the portrait off at the far end of the office floor. It was very large. I couldn’t tell what the picture was of, but I did see a group of employees staring at it… almost, admiring it?
“Your wife’s name is Meredith, right?”
I froze as the receptionist’s question shot a dart right through me. I didn’t remember the job application form ever asking for my wife’s name.
“You two are thinking of having children, right? If it’s a boy, you want to name him Sam?”
What. The. Fuck? Forget that she was right on the money, this was something I’d never spoken about before to anyone, including my wife.
Before I could answer, the office workers surrounding the large portrait started singing the Happy Birthday song loudly, in complete and perfect unison. Someone brought out a birthday cake and presented it to the portrait. A portrait that, after a bit of squinting, I realized was a very large version of my highschool yearbook photo.
I backed into the elevator, and pressed the “close door” button. I panicked as it took its sweet time to register.
Press. Press. Press. Come the fuck on.
After what felt like an eternity, the doors started closing. As they closed, I heard the receptionist -
“I’m so curious to know what your insides taste like, Michael.”
Fuck. Me.
Ninth floor. I needed to go to the ninth floor.
I found the 9th floor button and pressed it. It felt like it didn’t register my push, so I pressed the button again. And again. Come on, come on, come on, ninth fucking floor. I tried again and again, but nothing was happening.
Fuck it. I’ll go back to the ground floor, I thought to myself. Back to the start.
As I went to press the ‘G’ button, I realized it was missing. Just that one singular button gone. Fuck.
I was getting claustrophobic. I took in deep breaths to prevent myself from having a full blown episode.
The elevator started moving up again. A panel above the elevator doors lit up with the following number: 11.
Someone was calling the elevator?
I started talking to myself to self-soothe. “It’s okay, someone will call the 9th floor soon. That’s where I’ll get off.”
As the elevator approached its new destination, I noticed that the background lounge music in the elevator had changed. It was now an instrumental arrangement of “Happy Birthday”. Huh. Not sure why this thing thought it was my birthday.
I glanced at the weather report on the TV. At least it was going to be sunny all week! Silver linings.
“Now arriving at the 11th floor.” DING!
The doors opened, I hung around the inside corner of the elevator beside the buttons. No need to have another nightmare-ish experience, right?
An old woman stepped onto the elevator.
Great, I’m sure this will be easy to explain to her.
She smiled at me, as the doors closed.
With a lump in my throat, I asked – “What floor?”
“Ground floor please.”
“Uh, I’m sorry ma’am but that button is missing. Maybe we could wait until someone calls us to the 9th floor?”
“9th? No, I think I’ll just go to the 2nd floor instead, then.”
She went to press the button.
“Ma’am, I don’t think it’d be safe to–”
“I have plenty of friends on the 2nd floor. It’ll be okay.”
Aaaaaaand she pressed it. I didn’t feel comfortable cornering an elderly stranger in a seemingly haunted elevator. But I tried again to convince her –
“I know this sounds weird, but I have it under good authority that the 2nd floor probably isn’t safe. I’d strongly recommend not getting off until we reach 9.”
She smiled.
“Dear, it’ll be alright. You know, I like to take all opportunities that are given to me. It’s… a shame that you turned your opportunity down. I know the folks on 5 are very disappointed.”
I backed up into the corner of the elevator.
I saw the reflection of the old lady in the elevator’s back mirror. She looked ghastly. Otherworldly.
“Now arriving at the 2nd floor.”
The doors opened. She smiled at me again, and then exited.
I poked my head around the corner to look at the 2nd floor. It was damp. It looked old. More like a cave than an office. I heard a low rumble.
A man dressed in a fancy suit approached the elevator doors and held them open before they could close.
“You getting off here too, champ? I heard that 5 wanted you. I think we can give you a better offer.”
“I’m good.”
“You sure, bud? The salary is eight hundred thousand dollars every hour.”
“I’m good.”
“I’m kidding bud. The salary is we remove your eyes so you don’t have to see him.”
The floor went pitch black. The low rumble got much louder and started reverberating in my ears. Suddenly, the businessman grabbed me by the collar and tried to pull me out of the elevator.
I clung onto the ends of it. Fuck. Fuck!
I started kicking and headbutting him. I was able to make him let go of me momentarily, as I desperately pressed on the “close doors” button. Miraculously, the elevator responded much quicker this time and they closed immediately.
I tried the 9th floor button again. Didn’t work. I pressed 8 instead. Anything to get away from this hell-hole of a floor.
I heard a loud banging on the door as the elevator started taking off. Like an aggressive knock.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
As I saw the floor numbers rising -
3… 4… 5…
The banging continued. Just as loud. What the fuck?
6th floor… 7th floor…
The banging on the door didn’t subside.
“Now arriving at the 8th flo–”
I pressed the button for the 23rd floor. Just as we arrived on 8, I mashed the “close doors” button just as the elevator doors were about to open. The banging continued as the elevator doors started denting.
The elevator continued going up.
9…
10…
11…
The banging softened.
14…
15…
And softened.
19…
20…
21…
And disappeared.
“Now arriving at the 23rd floor.”
It was gone. Thank fucking god.
I exhaled. It felt like I’d narrowly avoided disaster.
The doors opened.
I scanned the new floor, and I realized… I was back on the ground floor. That’s what it looked like, anyways. Did I escape? Was I finally free?
A man stood not-too-far from the door. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t exactly place him.
“Hey man,” he spoke.
Was this the guy who got off the elevator just as I got on?
“...hey.”
“It’s over man. You got out,” he told me.
I felt a wave of relief wash over me… but I had to fight it.
“But you said the 9th floor was the only safe one, right?”
“That was a trick. You followed your gut and you were right. 23rd floor. The real safe floor. You can step out now, man.”
I didn’t leave.
“There’s someone here who really wants to see you.”
I couldn’t move.
“He wants to give you a job. He thinks you’re gonna be great.”
Why the fuck couldn’t I move?
“He’s in the other room. I’m gonna fetch him, okay? All you have to do is look at him. It’ll feel a bit weird at first, but then it’ll all be okay. It’s a permanent position. Great benefits. It is fully onsite, but, no better birthday present than a new job, right?”
I lowered my gaze to the floor. I forced myself to mutter the following words - “It’s not my fucking birthday.”
As he left to fetch… whoever he was meaning to fetch, he gave me the following response: “Relax, man. No cursing on the job. We’re a family here.”
It felt like I could only move a centimeter at a time. A true snail’s pace. I inched my finger closer and closer to the “close door” button.
I heard footsteps. He was coming back.
With every fiber of my being, I pushed through. I hit the button.
The doors closed, and I collapsed to the floor… free from whatever weird force was stopping me from moving.
“I’ll let you two talk more on the elevator,” I heard him say from outside the doors.
What?
Instinctively, I looked around.
To my surprise, there was nothing. The elevator was the same as it had always been.
A lengthy exhale. I was done with all of this. At this point, I would’ve taken death over continuing this bullshit any longer.
As I pondered my next move in this hopeless situation, I noticed something strange. The button to the 9th floor was lit up. An ominous, crimson-red color.
Before I could do anything else, my phone started ringing. I checked the call.
It was my wife.
I answered.
“Babe. Fuck, I don’t know why I didn’t even think to call you - I’m trapped in an elevator and fucked up shit is happening and maybe I should call the cops? Fuck I–”
“Hun. Don’t go to the ninth floor.”
“What? W-wait, how do you even–”
“It’s a trick, honey. You have to trust me. The man from before was lying to you. It’s not safe.”
“None of this has been safe! How do you even know everything that’s happening?!”
“You just need to trust me, hun.”
I paused.
“So what do you want me to do then?”
A demon on the other side of the phone answered this time.
“GO TO YOUR INTERVIEW.”
I hung up the call and in a panic, I mashed on the 9th floor button. The elevator started rising again.
Even with me hanging up the call, the muffled sound of the demonic voice coming from my phone continued.
“GO TO YOUR INTERVIEW.
GO TO YOUR INTERVIEW.
GO TO YOUR INTERVIEW.”
I pulled out my phone and flung it to the ground as hard as I could. I stomped on it angrily. The warped sound of “GO TO YOUR INTERVIEW” slowly started dying out.
But suddenly, the elevator started shaking. It was continuing to go up… but it was faster than usual. Really, really fucking fast all of a sudden. Almost like the 9th floor was now way below me.
It felt like an amusement park ride with no breaks on it. Loose. Dangerous. Flinging up at an insane speed, almost as if it was falling upwards.
“But I pressed nine?!” I screamed to myself, exasperated.
It didn’t matter.
“Now arriving at the 41st floor.”
God, what the fuck?
I was brought to my knees by the speed of the elevator traveling faster and faster.
“Now arriving at the 90th floor.”
The buttons didn’t even go past 52.
“Now arriving at the 141st floor.”
Fuck.
“Now arriving at the 230th floor.”
“Now arriving at the 401st floor.”
I felt like I was inside a bullet. The pleasant voice of the elevator lady was getting deeper and deeper as we rose.
“Now arriving at the 840th floor.”
The voice started croaking. A demonic sound this time –
“Now arriving at SOMEWHERE NICE.”
A sudden halt. The elevator stopped. The doors didn’t open though. The panel above the elevator doors had no indication on what floor we were on.
As I sat, I heard what could be best described as the sounds of hell coming from outside the elevator. Low grunts of pain. Crackling. A dark hymn.
Was this where I was supposed to get off?
Before I could ponder the question further, I heard a soft tapping on the elevator. A voice from outside –
“Do you want to trade?” said the voice.
I decided to bite, for reasons I still don’t fully understand.
“What do you mean?”
“What if you stay on this floor forever, and I get to go home?”
“Uhm. I, uh, think I’m good…”
“But I really want to go home.”
It almost sounded like the voice of a kid. Fucking hell.
“I-I’m sorry, kid,” I mustered back.
“It’s okay.”
An awkward silence between us.
“He told me that he wants to wish you a Happy Birthday,” said the kid.
“I, uh… think he’s got it wrong. Today isn’t my birthday.”
“It is,” he responded. “It’s the first day of your new life. Your birthday.”
…?
“He wants you to look at the TV.”
What?
I looked at the TV in the top corner of the elevator, hoping to see the one constant I’d had during this whole cursed trip - the weather.
Instead, the TV was now showcasing what looked to be CCTV footage. Grainy footage from a camera… of the exact elevator I was in. A live feed of this exact moment.
Except, the TV showed me lying down. Looking up with a wide smile on my face.
And something above me on the ceiling. Looking straight down at me.
Him.
The lights in the elevator went off. The elevator plummeted downwards, as I closed my eyes and screamed for dear fucking life.
I waited for the impact.
For what I knew was my demise.
Here it comes.
Here it fucking comes.
I’m not ready.
I’m not ready at all.
“Now arriving at the 9th floor.”
DING!
The doors opened.
Wait, what?
9th floor?
I peeked out from the elevator.
Another reception desk.
Wait, is this really the -
I was interrupted by a voice from the outside.
“You coming out or what you fucking moron?”
I got to my feet. The feeling of distrust… anxiety, whatever you’d call it. My fear intuition. It was gone.
I felt light.
Fuck it.
I stepped onto the floor and approached the counter.
The receptionist handed me what looked like a button for the elevator.
“For the ground floor,” she said. “Single use only.”
I took it and headed towards the elevator.
Then, I turned back to face her.
“Can I maybe take the stairs?”
She shook her head.
“If you didn’t like the elevator, then you’re really not gonna like the stairs.”
Fair enough.
I got into the elevator.
I said a silent prayer to myself as I put the button where it belonged.
It fit without any issue.
I pressed it, and the elevator went down. It was a smooth ride.
“Now arriving at the ground floor.”
DING!
As I got ready to exit, I realized that the ground floor button was missing once again. Strange. I didn’t linger on it.
I marched out, ready to get the fuck out of this building.
I noticed a woman running onto the elevator. I tried to stop her, but something in my body wouldn’t let me.
The most I could muster was putting my hand on the door to relay a message to her before the doors closed.
“Don’t get off until you reach the 9th floor. No matter what.”
The woman just smiled at me.
“Happy Birthday Michael.”

Staying at an airBnB and last night the key kept getting stuck in the lock and I made the host aware of this situation. Like it took me over 15 minutes of fiddling to get the key out of the lock. I messaged the host a picture of the key stuck in the lock and the host said this has never happened before. Eventually I did get the key out though.
The next day, I stupidly tried to use the key again instead of leaving well enough alone and just leaving the door unlocked and the key got stuck again. This time I couldn’t get it out no matter what I tried. Then I was able to get the key out! And by get it out I mean it snapped in half with half the key stuck inside the lock and the other half in my hand… Should I let the host know this immediately? It was a complete accident and this is only my third or fourth time booking an airBnB. Will I be fined for this? I assume a locksmith must be called. What should I try doing, please help 🙏

I got hospitalised 4 times in the span of 5 months. I was vomiting blood ranging from 1 day to 3 days straight before going to hospital. I'm apparently prediabetic, "have the liver of a 60 year old" at 21 (I'm an ex-drug addict as well) and suspect I have neuropathy. Totalled 1 car, a DUI and I've also got a bunch of scars and nerve damage in some of my fingers due to being so sloshed I accidentally injured myself. My withdraws got so severe my body wouldn't take the oxygen I was breathing, my throat would close up, and my limbs would curl up and lock due to the lack of oxygen. it would last upwards of 30 minutes. My 2nd to most recent hospitalisation I was so ill they had to put an IV in my neck (aka means super serious) and I was on deaths door. Cold to the touch, grey, weak, hardly breathing and in a lot of pain. To add onto that, my ex-boyfriend didn't even help me in. He threw me out of the car 2 rows away from the ER entrance. Since i couldnt walk or barely do anything, I called 911 to tell them i needed to be wheeled in. They could barely understand me because I could hardly speak. I've since moved back in with my parents and still drink but not like how I did. I never even considered alcohol withdrawals being a thing despite my history in illicit drug use. I never saw myself as an alcoholic despite my entire family all being severe and mean drunks. My dad drinks actively in front of me and I stay unbothered and its only been 3 weeks since I moved back in. I can go to a restaurant and have just one beer. I don't know why I let myself drink like that. I met that ex a little over a year ago and he was a severe alcoholic. Compounding with that was the fact I had just moved from a different state and I had been very lonely and depressed even before moving, coping with alcohol. I reached a breaking point way before the hospitalisations (last one was March 17) but I got so used to the routine I didnt care I guess. Didn't mind dying because I put myself in another mess being with this guy. It was the only activity we actively enjoyed and could "share" together. We bonded over drugs and couldnt find a common ground and a 14 year age gap didn't help. Ishould've known better but I guess that's what happens when you meet a guy at a bar buying cocaine with your aunt and uncle. He took me into the bathroom, offered me a bump, and I snuck off to his hotel and lived with him since. Slept in my car and hotels for a couple months partying like crackheads. Eventually got an apartment and everything was really good in the beginning then we moved to a new apartment and it all spiralled worse.
Anways that's my story. I'm not sober but I'm not off the fUcking deeeeeeep end. I've had a few glasses of wine and beer. I live in walking distance of a liquor store and I don't really feel like going.
I just wanted to talk about this experience. Its similar to how I quit drugs except instead of giving myself the ultimatum he did it for me. He left me 7 hours from home at a hotel with nothing but the clothes on my back. I wasn't upset we were over I was only upset he took my stuff. I knew it was a mutually toxic relationship, both interpersonal and chemical romance. I figured after finally having a clear(er) mind that I wanted a sense of freedom? I love my parents but it's ass having to live with them. I've moved out 3 separate times as knee jerk reactions and this was just a rerun.
The amount of damage I've caused my body in the span of a year due to the severe amount of alcohol intake feels irreversible, especially because I had the extra disadvantage of being anorexic. I've never had health problems before despite it but alcohol is the most dangerous substance. I was a heavy drug user for 4 years and I never experienced the reaper looming over me before.

I hate my house. I hate everything about it. It’s always too clean, and there just seems to be something off about it. Although, I can’t ever find anything tangible that is wrong with it except for the fact that it’s dark. There is never enough light to illuminate things I need to see. I somehow always find myself squinting when I read, and turning on more lamps as the day goes on. I am well aware that I have many more light sources than the average person, but I need them. There is never enough light.
I realized this about my house after the first week of moving in. The first week was filled with the excitement of independence, however once the high wore off, the darkness settled in. It has honestly just made me uncomfortable. I feel like the house has something to hide.
I came back from work one evening and started my ritual of turning on just about every light there was in this goddamn place. It took me a couple of minutes to thoroughly go through every light source and click each one on. It made my house slightly more bearable, but still it wasn’t enough.
Finally I convince myself to go finish up some paperwork. I walk towards the living room where my desk is, and pull out a pen and a flashlight. I always need the flashlight to do any sort of writing because my eyes don’t even seem to register what I am writing if I don’t have extremely concentrated light focused on the paper.
I switch my flashlight on and begin writing. Going along, I manage to get through most of it within twenty minutes or so. Although, as time passes, the light from my flashlight seems to be brighter and brighter. Confused yet happy, I look at my flashlight and see that it wasn’t even on. I click the button a few times, and it must be dead. Confused, I look up at the ceiling where the recessed lighting is and am almost blinded as I look at it. It’s brighter than I’ve ever seen it in my life. I feel the light hit my skin and take in the beauty. I’ve never experienced this much pure bliss. Finally, light has entered my life and I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
I look around the living room and find that every single light source that has been turned on is glowing brighter than ever before. So, I just sit in my office chair, basking in the artificial light that is finally enough for me.
A few minutes go by, and the excitement of light has worn off. Now, if anything, it has become too bright. I look up at the ceiling once again and see that the light is even brighter than before. How could that be possible? It almost hurts my eyes.
In fact, now it does hurt my eyes. I look down at my tile floor for a second. With the overly bright light, I can now see things I never saw before in my house. There’s huge cracks along the baseboards. The cracks even run up the walls and spider out in a million directions. I quickly run into my kitchen, and find that the cracks are there too. How could I have never seen them before? I know that my house was dark, but it shouldn’t have affected my sight that much, right?
I look to the countertop and find the set of chef’s knives sitting pristinely in the corner. I never realized how incredibly dirty they were, or how sharp the blades were. I take a closer look and find gunk practically growing on the knives. I seriously don’t understand how I could not have seen it until now.
The light is getting brighter. The colors are now becoming washed out in my kitchen by the harsh light. It’s so bright that anything even slightly reflective causes me to squint and look away. I feel my heart pounding in my chest as my brain tries to think through the situation. Why is this even happening?
I look around more at my kitchen and discover even more details that I had never seen before there was light. The window’s seal was completely broken, and there were insects flying in, hundreds a second. The pots and pans all had leftover food residue that looks like it could grow to the size of the house soon if left unsupervised. My fridge had a huge dent in the metal door, and the cabinet doors were all off of their hinges. My house was literally falling apart. All the while, the lights were getting unbearably brighter.
I had to get out of here. I wasn’t sure which would get me first, the lights blinding me, or the house collapsing on top of me, or the mold taking over almost all of the food left in my pantry. I run towards the front door, and try to leave, but the instant I touch the handle, I draw back my hand as it burns me. The light has become so bright that I can hardly see anything, and the metal in my house is starting to heat up. I realize that it is now or never, and that the flesh on my hand will need to be sacrificed to spare my life. I reach out blindly for the handle once again, turn the lock, and shove the door open. I can smell the burning flesh and I can hardly feel anything but pain in my hand.
As I cross the threshold of my door, I hear my house begin to collapse behind me. I run a few yards away from my house and look back. It’s entirely rubble now. I wonder how I could have never seen all of the signs of that decaying house until a few minutes ago.
The darkness blinded me from the problems. The light blinded me from the solutions.
It was too late.
I am homeless.
Nobody would ever believe that I hadn’t seen the cracks in my walls and foundation until now, or the mold growing on my food or the lights becoming so bright that I was temporarily blinded. They will all think I’m crazy. And the worst part is, I can feel the darkness settling over me once again. There is no more light, and even though it seemed to blind me temporarily, I missed what the light revealed. Now I am left in the dark about what my life will become once again.

This is actually my second post here, and I don’t normally use Reddit so I thought I’d just drop this here incase anyone sees it. I am terrified of harmful entities, and on this sub I keep seeing people telling stories about how they have started seeing visions and doors slamming and creatures crawling through mirrors and it kinda scares me. Although I’d be actually overjoyed to be able to work with those sort of things when I get older and more experienced, I’d love to avoid them for now. I heard of cleansing, locking mirrors, and I think salt helps with protection? However i haven’t come across a full list of all the things I need to set up before I start. For example, if I put a layer of salt at my door will that stop bad spirits from getting out too?? I spent all of my childhood as a very devoted christian so I guess I’m worried that if I start witchcraft it could break down those protections I had as a christian? It sounds kinda silly now that I’m writing it. Thank you so much for taking your time reading this<3 And have a great day!!

Charlie was sitting in her room, gazing out the window at the darkening sky. The beautiful colours of twilight had become a dull grey like how she felt within. She hadn’t seen her parents in what seemed days, although the clock on the wall seems to indicate only a few hours ago. They appeared to be forgetting that Charlie was alive and it hurt more than anything else.
As she descended into the kitchen, her steps were marked by creaking wood, which gave way under her feet that were bare. Emma, her mother, stood with her back towards the entrance cooking supper. Charlie paused outside the door hoping for acknowledgement from her mother but received none. In the lounge Mark sat engrossed in his book, unaware of Charlie’s presence.
“Mom? Dad?” called out Charlie with a tremor in her voice.
No answer came forth. Inside anger boiled and frustration welled up inside her as she marched to the dining table and knocked over a glass sending it crashing onto the floor without even getting attention from them.
“What is wrong with you? Why don’t you see me?” She screamed through house walls.
Yet there was no response at all. She was boiling with anger and frustration. She went to the dining table and hit it up against a glass that fell on the ground, breaking into pieces.
Her mother jumped, turning quickly. “Mark, did you hear that?” she called out, concern in her voice. “What was it?” Mark asked, looking up from his book. “I think the glass fell over on its own,” Emma replied, hurrying to the table. She knelt down, carefully picking up the shards. “Strange, there’s no breeze in here.” Charlie stood frozen, watching her mother clean up the mess she had made. Emma’s face was a mix of confusion and sadness, as if she was struggling with something deeper than a broken glass. As her mother swept up the last of the shards, Charlie felt a chill run down her spine. Something was terribly wrong. “What’s your problem? Don’t you see me?” She shouted loudly and her voice reverberated all over the house. However, there was no response from them. Her mother hummed a sad melody as her father proceeded to turn a page in his book without interruption. Charlie felt coldness run down her spine; something was terribly amiss.
On that night she hurried back into her room seeking answers. In desperation, she got out one of her old photograph albums intending to find some solace in happier times. While flipping through pages, she came across an image which made her heart skip beats. It had been a photo of both of them standing by a grave their faces full of grief deepness etched on their faces . Her name was engraved on the tombstone: Charlotte "Charlie" Evans
The truth hit her like a sledgehammer and she felt the rush of cold air. She had died months ago. The accident—it was all coming back to her now. The car crash on that rainy night, the blinding headlights, the screeching tires. She had been so sure she would make it home safely, but she never did.
Her parents weren’t neglecting her; they simply couldn’t see her. She was a ghost, trapped in a world where she no longer belonged. It was frightening and at the same time liberating when she realized what this meant for her life. Her face was soaked with tears as the depth of grief in her parents’ heart and own tragic end unfolded to her.
Charlie, determined to seek reconciliation, decided to pay her respects at the grave. A silence fell over the night as she trod through dark streets into the cemetery. The mists were dense; and there was a gentle wind in the trees. The parents’ flowers were already withered on her headstone that stood under an old oak tree.
Next to the grave, she kneeled down and put a hand on the cold rock. “I am sorry Mommy, Daddy.” She apologized silently. “Now I know better than I did before. I love you so much.”
The first rays of sunrise brought mild heat around Charlie’s body. At that moment, she looked up and saw them standing by cemetery entrance holding hands with their faces white but unyielding. They were here for her, they came back to cry again.
Emma wiped away tears from her eyes as she placed some new flowers on the grave which sparkled in the morning sunshine.“We miss you darling,”she murmured.“Every single day we miss you.”
Charlie felt comforted – he felt at ease with the world. They stared at each other as she backed away from the TV and watched them silently celebrate their memory. She knew that their love for her and conscience would continue to be as strong as the heart’s beating.
‘This is the finest way to end it’ thought Charlie as she gazed at her parents one final time before drifting away for good. She learned that she was never there alone – she wasn’t. And as she closed her journey towards the light, she again said ‘goodbye’, because she knew that she was a part of all of them, and that all of them are a part of her.

"Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?"

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

Why Penal Substitution Is Unbiblical

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

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

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

The Content of Paul's Gospel Message

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

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

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

Justification, and the "New" Perspective on Paul

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

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

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

Omnivore is a free, open source read-it-later universal app that supports highlights and notes, has RSS and newsletter subscriptions, and imports into Obsidian, Logseq and Notion. Other choices like Pocket, Matter and Instapaper aren't crap, but they do cost, and you run the risk that your carefully cultivated collection could be locked into a closed system. I would only recommend Readies if Kindle integration is a must have for you and you are willing to pay for it.
Omnivore has extensions for each major browser family that let you save an article along with keywords. The reading interface is stripped of ads. For a lot of people, the killer feature of Omnivore is the AI voice narration that's difficult to differentiate from an actual human. There are multiple voices to choose from. Once you're done reading an article you can move it out of your inbox and into an archive that remains available for full text searches.
My full review
Omnivore in the App Store

Okay, so I'm not sure if this is a common experience, but I was constantly accused of stealing stuff as a kid (without justification).
My brothers got locks on their doors because it was apparently so bad and I was super untrustworthy. This peaked around 15, when my little brother lost his iPod and accused me of stealing it (I had not). There was no evidence I had done this. My parents made me pay him the cost of it. When he found it at the bottom of his cupboard six months later they refused to apologize to me and acted like I was making a scene for being upset about it.
Years later, I was out of home and visiting and they mentioned they don't use this one kitchen appliance anymore. I'd been about to buy one so asked if I could have it. Dad said yes. Mum said yes (twice, I double checked, not my first rodeo). I checked again right before I left that it was okay, yes again from both, left.
Well, guess who got a blistering call from their mother about taking it a week later? Not only was she deeply concerned I knew where it was in the cupboard in order to remove it (the same spot for the last 18 years I lived there) but if I was going through the cupboards how could she know I wasn't going through her filing cabinet? What else did I look through?? Etc.
I wasn't allowed to touch their wallets, go into the study, all sorts because of my nefarious motives. Y'all I have NEVER stolen anything bar a plant cutting over a fence on my life.
Oh yes - except for one thing. My mom didn't give me sanitary products or hygiene products that I needed (menstruation products, leg hair removal stuff, tweezers, nail clippers) and didn't let me use hers, so I had to steal hers or be bullied for my hair and stuff toilet paper into my undies.
So - a common experience? An anomaly?

Omnivore is a free, open source read-it-later universal app that supports highlights and notes, has RSS and newsletter subscriptions, and imports into Obsidian, Logseq and Notion. Other choices like Pocket, Matter and Instapaper aren't crap, but they do cost, and you run the risk that your carefully cultivated collection could be locked into a closed system. I would only recommend Readies if Kindle integration is a must have for you and you are willing to pay for it.
Omnivore has extensions for each major browser family that let you save an article along with keywords. The reading interface is stripped of ads. For a lot of people, the killer feature of Omnivore is the AI voice narration that's difficult to differentiate from an actual human. There are multiple voices to choose from. Once you're done reading an article you can move it out of your inbox and into an archive that remains available for full text searches.
My full review
Omnivore in the App Store

Introduction

Hello fellow Helldivers. My name is Elliot, alias TeGoRE, a player with 155 hours on the game and plenty of experience gathered from 3rd party sources, especially Reddit and YouTube. I primarily play on difficulty 7, so this post will be biased specifically towards that difficulty.
As you all may know by this point, a lot of people are upset with the Automaton faction, its issues, balancing, bugs, etc. In this post I will be attempting to bring awareness to specific issues rather than asking for vague and general "fixes" the faction would need. I will also be referencing the other faction currently present in the game, the Terminids, as a point of comparison throughout the post.

"Fun factor" analysis; Loadout restrictions

I'll begin with what I believe will be the major point of discussion here. The automatons are just not fun. I understand this is a critical take, but please read before jumping straight to comments.
Let's compare the "fun" factor of Terminids to Automatons here. The Terminids allow you to run pretty much any loadout, while still letting you have impact on the game. You can run pure fodder clear loadouts with light penetration primaries and support tools and contribute to the mission that way, allowing your teammates to clear the heavies with ease. You can also run pure heavy clear with big bulky primaries and anti-tank tools, still contributing to the mission by destroying any charger and bile titan that comes into sight hence allowing your teammates to shoot the other fodder present without being spat on by a 400 ton oversized shrimp or being charged at by a walking rock. With both loadout cases you can also bring stratagems or change out your primaries and other tools (secondary and grenade specifically) that will allow you to have at least some impact on the heavies or lights, respectfully.
The Automatons don't allow for such loadout variety, and considering all the nerf barrages we've been receiving it's obvious that loadout choices are quite restrictive when it comes to fighting automatons. When was the last time you ran flamethrower against the Automatons? Any of the guard dogs? Any other sentry besides autocannon, EMS mortar or maybe the rocket sentry? Gas or airburst strikes? Light penetration or non-precision primaries? You get my point.
The faction requires a playstyle too specific for the casual player. You need to equip high precision weaponry (AMR, Counter sniper, Dominator, etc.) or medium penetration weaponry (Liberator penetrator, Counter sniper, Autocannon, etc) alongside way too many anti-tank tools. Sure, you can bring fodder clear, but the only realistic fodder is the regular troopers or the strider unit. Maybe berserkers. Only reliable (not saying it's the only viable one might I add) fodder clearer would be the grenade launcher, maybe the arc thrower. Furthermore, once on the actual battlefield, you can't necessarily play aggressive. Jump into a pile of bots and you'll be jumping back out limb-by-limb. You have to stay in cover, picking enemies one by one, slowly advancing forward. Then get all your progress denied by a bot drop :^)
We can then conclude that one of the contributing factors to why the Automatons aren't fun is the fact that it's too restricting and too sluggish. Let's look deeper, and analyse why your loadout and playstyle get so restricted;

Enemy analysis, its' contribution to the fun factor

The enemy types of the faction just do not let you vary your loadout enough.
Devastators specifically are the biggest issue. The regular devastator is well-thought out, a heavier bulkier unit with obvious weakspots and not too much firepower which could be compared to the hive guard in terms of mechanics. However, for the heavy devastator and rocket devastator, these are built to just bullshit you into dying. And good luck killing them if you have a light-pen weapon or generally don't have a longer-ranged or high-precision tool, as their primary body (excluding the abdomen) has enough HP to take three full counter sniper magazines (I do not know how a rocket devastator managed to do that, but it did) and just shrug it off. I don't think I need to talk about heavy devastators, they've been brought up enough... I will just briefly skim over it. They're too accurate. "Suppressive fire" does nothing to them. Their 70%-body-covering shield can eat anti-tank projectiles no problem. Sometimes a pack of devastators can be more devastating (badumtss) than a pack of hulks, depending on what devastators they are. If the "heavy" unit of a faction gets outperformed by common enemies, it's an obvious issue.
Another obnoxious enemy type is the berserker. As the name implies, they're a rage-crazed bot with only one directive: charge at you and kill you, no regard for its personal being. Which would be fine if they didn't have the health pool of a damn tank. One unit alone can eat an anti-tank projectile. And they typically spawns in packs of 4. Their weakspots don't even count as weakspots from what I can personally tell, shooting them in the head or the abdomen does about the same damage as just plain out shooting them. They're hard to kill at their core, and if they're backed up by support fire from the other enemy types behind them, you're pretty much helpless.
The rest of the enemy units are fine, in my opinion. They're well thought-out, with obvious counter-measure mechanics.
Hulks can be compared to Chargers. Heavy, tanky units at first, but mechanic rich enough to be an easy take-down once you figure out what you're doing. They have a giant heatsink which is where you have to shoot at regularly to take them out reliably. Not a weakspot might I add, just a point which you can shoot. Think Charger's butt. If you're a space cowboy shooting their tiny faceplate with anti-tank, or even medium penetration tools, can kill them as well. Lastly, just pumping them full of anti-tank projectiles (typically 2 rockets from any of the support weapons) will take them out just fine. There's other cool tricks you could pull off, such as throwing impact grenades between their feet, making them land behind the hulk, which would then take it out in 2 impact grenades if done right. Thermite grenades also deal a lot of damage to their legs, which can take them out too. Lastly, their arms can just be plain out shot off with the right tools. In conclusion, they are threatening at first, but once you use your brain to figure out its weakness, you're going to shrug them off.
Factory Striders are the Bile Titans of the Automatons. They are a bit less obvious but can still be handled decently well by a complete newbie. 2 miniguns on the front, shoot them off with medium penetration for easier kiting. Rocket the top cannon off for further success. Their big exposed abdomen is the obvious weakspot anyone can figure out. Shoot it enough and it'll die. For the more experienced, the front panel eye alongside the opening vents can also be points of advantage. Oh also can we talk about how they're a giant walking factory? Just bomb that bitch! 500kg, orbital precision strike, a regular airstrike, etc. It's a giant target just BEGGING you to throw stratagems at it.
Striders are simple as well. Big impenetrable front plate, completely exposed sides and back. A baby could do it!
Troopers are just fodder. Shoot 'em, they fall over.

Issue with dropships

If you played at least a few hours on the automaton front, you may know that the dropships can be shot down. However, when was the last time you saw that actually do anything?
The explosion deals too little damage, only sometimes killing the trooper units it's carrying. The body of the dropship itself seems to do no impact damage on the automatons, but loves to damage the shit out of you. The automatons also don't seem to care when they fall down 50 feet. Especially dropships with tanks. Shoot them down at the highest point of their drop, tank flies down at crazy velocity, lands with literally 0 damage to itself, then the dropships smacks on top of the tank doing fuck-all to it.
Oh and you can't forget the fact that the debris is solid cover FOR THE BOTS. You can't shoot through it. They can. They can also walk through it, you can't. ??????????

Issues with Automaton-specific side objectives

I will only bring up the ones that have actual issues behind them. If it isn't brought up here, then I personally believe it is fine.

• SEAF SAM Site

Barely does it's job. Shoots down one dropship per reinforcement, and as we learned earlier shooting the dropships down doesn't even do anything to begin with. Often times the rockets hit terrain as well. Completely pointless side-objective.

• Stratagem Jammer

Add some sort of indication to the spectating players when the person they're spectating is inside a jammer field, and therefore cannot reinforce them. Too many posts about too many people getting kicked for not reinforcing when they literally cannot.

• Mortar emplacement

WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY oh my god SHUT UP!!!!

Bugs (not the Terminid kind)

The faction is riddled with way too many bugs, which just suck the fun out of it. Bots shooting through obviously solid cover, bots seeing you from across the map / through cover and then calling reinforcements, their seemingly 50/50 resistance to explosive damage, then other misc bugs not worth addressing.
This obviously drives people away. A terminid can't shoot me through a rock, I'd prefer fighting that terminid.

Conclusion of analysis; Solutions, final thoughts

The Automaton faction enemies & its mechanics at its core are fine, most enemies making complete sense. Most mechanics, while rich in function, are not very obvious. To play the faction well you need to invest some time into learning how it works. This deters the casual player back to the terminid front, which is a bit more brainless, requiring you just "hurr durr shoot bugs". Here's some solutions to consider:
Rework the devastator enemy type, specifically its specialists types:

• The rocket devastators shouldn't be able to spam their rockets as much as they do. I'd much prefer a larger barrage with a longer cooldown.
• Heavy devastators shouldn't be pin-point accurate if you're not moving / moving slowly. They do spread their shots out if you're moving, but it doesn't contribute all that much, you will still most likely take at least some hits. They're carrying a machine gun and shooting it from their hip with seemingly 0 precision. How is it that accurate?

The spawn rates of the specialist types could be reworked instead, allowing space for the default devastator instead rather than constantly spewing the specialist types. When was the last time you saw a dropship bring just normal devastators?
Please please please do something about berserkers. Lower their health pool. Maybe make the weakspots actually do something. Perhaps make them spawn less frequently if they're in the major enemy pool. Or, instead of that, make the packs smaller. They're a major ammo sink currently and by the time you're done killing them all the other enemies are already in your face.
Dropship crashes should actually do something. If I use up my support weapon's ammo to shoot down a dropship, I would want it to actually contribute to me destroying the bots, not just create a flashy explosion and extra 1-way cover for the bots.
SEAF SAM Site needs a rework of sorts. Make it always spawn on higher terrain, maybe buff its firerate (see actual SAM sites for reference), or keep the firerate as is if dropship crashes actually start doing something, instead improving its turn speed and lock-on speed. Primary issue is terrain though.
"oh yeah this spot is PERFECT for a SAM site!" said the seaf engineer after ordering it be built in a trench enclosed by cliffs from all 4 sides "what the hell is this" said the helldiver when stumbling upon it
Realistically speaking, the only people who perform well when fighting against Automatons are those who have tens of hours of experience on their belt alongside a team with similar skill level, using proper "meta" (god forbid) loadouts to properly counter the bot menace. The casual solo-queue player just crumbles.

Conclusion & Goodbyes

I may have missed some things, but I tried to grab everything problematic about the faction to the best of my ability. I will most likely not edit the post due to it already being gigantic. However any comments adding onto the post are obviously appreciated. :)
If you're here to find a tl;dr, don't bother. No way in hell I'm summarizing 11.5k+ worth of characters. Just read the analysis conclusion.
If you're here after reading everything above, thank you. I hope this was a fun read and brought attention to why you might not be having as much fun on automatons, maybe made you realize what needs to be done in order to counter the currently sluggish faction. I just hope I helped in some way.
If you're a developer, thank you for creating an amazing game. I've been in love with Helldivers 2 since the very start (upon finding it reaching sky-high popularity), enjoying every hour of gameplay. But just like with any game, it has its flaws, and I hope these are properly addressed. The community has been asking for changes, and I hope my post brought awareness to it.
Buh-bye!!!

Hi all. Just wanted to try getting a narrowed down idea of my type. Feel free to comment your thoughts! Thanks!
• How old are you? What's your gender? Give us a general description of yourself.
I'm a 25 year-old male. I'm a diligent student and am living away from my home country for now 9 years. Ive spent those 9 years trying to understand the way the society works here and have adapted rather well, to the point where people can't tell I'm a foreigner. I'm pretty active, although it's more so activity for the sake of activity. As such, I'm kinda fit.
• Is there a medical diagnosis that may impact your mental stability somehow?
Yes. GAD and PTSD.
• If you had to spend an entire weekend by yourself, how would you feel? Would you feel lonely or refreshed?
I would have fomo if I were to see everyone else that I deem as friend doing something cool on socials. Then I would become resentful. However, I myself am perfectly okay being in my own company. I prefer it. That is not to say I don't like being with my frens. I would feel refreshed but there would come a point where I would feel as if I can't bear being so alone. Especially after long periods of time. However, I am accustomed to being alone and finding the joy in it. Like I said, I would resent the very sociable folks because I felt left out
• What kinds of activities do you prefer? Do you like, and are you good at sports? Do you enjoy any other outdoor or indoor activities?
I like activities that i can enjoy anywhere. Though i think this is because of how used to using a phone i am. Mobile gaming etc... is pretty neat. I like activities in which i can see a story unfold. Reading is one of them, iwas a huge reader as a kid. But i gravitate more so towards watching cool shows. However i much prefer shows and things that arent as popular because then people wont annoyingly yap about the surface level of the shows that we mutually have watched. Though I do like creative activities, like painting, I also like shopping and walking around. I like doing things that I feel are leading towards something grand. So, for instance, journaling and practicing a skill daily brings me some pleasure. I used to be a huge football fan until I realized how corrupt the sport was. I do like some sports though. I've always liked tossing and catching balls, playing with bouncy balls as a kid etc... I like skateboarding, though I haven't owned one in years.
• How curious are you? Do you have more ideas then you can execute? What are your curiosities about? What are your ideas about - is it environmental or conceptual, and can you please elaborate?
Quite curious. I'm sometimes out of touch with reality just entertaining my mental musings. I will be sat and thinking about some random topic or thing iused to hear about and then research it. I'll try to make sense of the world and the "why" behind things. For example; why do I have nightmares when it's cold? Why are xyz so unreasonable? Why am I so attached to this toy? Why don't people do instead of y? I feel like social media has influenced this process tho. Giving us random things to consume, it leads us to clicking on videos and articles that spark new interests so easily and quickly, so I'm unsure. Though I tend to want to know why certain things are happening or WHAT is happening. Especially if theres like a crown gasping at something, for instance.
• Would you enjoy taking on a leadership position? Do you think you would be good at it? What would your leadership style be?
i have taken leadership positions in the past, and I did well. I much prefer to appeal to the good nature of my "teammates" and encourage them to do a good job.however, I prefer to select my team. I do not want laziness or incompetence in my crew. So I will scan my options and choose who I will team up with. If I have options that are limited to not-so-skilled individuals, I will play a leadership role and do most of the thinking. Tho I don't enjoy it.
• Are you coordinated? Why do you feel as if you are or are not? Do you enjoy working with your hands in some form? Describe your activity?
i'm coordinated, yeah. I actually prefer situations where I can grasp the essence of a problem and use my hands. I prefer writing over reading, so I guess I like using my hands fo effect the mediums I work with. I used to want to be like a spy who is interacting with a bunch of gadgets and mobilizing himself towards a goal. My activity is usually at my own pace. I frequently try to finish tasks ahead of schedule because I want to spend more time lazing around and doing whatever I want. I tend to seek clarity in instructions I am given and sequentially take care of each piece of the task I am given. I recently started using to do lists because the workload became HUGE. I will, however, not compromise my comfort.
• Are you artistic? If yes, describe your art? If you are not particular artistic but can appreciate art please likewise describe what forms of art you enjoy. Please explain your answer.
i am. I am skilled with pencil shading and line art and do pretty well with colours and aesthetics. I know what I like and try to make something that appeals to me and is objectively nice. I tend to also make pieces that resonate with myself, so things that I like. I even sought to learn to draw faces to draw myself and my friends ad fantasy characters. I'm good with visual arts but I'm also a pretty good actor. I've always excelled at making accents and role playing. I like thinking of people in terms of the archetypes they fill and even portray my friends in memes
• What's your opinion about the past, present, and future? How do you deal with them?
The past, I have a love hate relationship with it. I made mistakes that I regret and have been through horrible things. But I do appreciate things from the past that bring me meaning. Certain flavors, sceneries, good memories. As for the present, I tend to be locked out of the present moment. I struggle to live in the moment and can seem rather weird. I think more about things than actually doing them. It feels like I play a character at any given moment for any given interaction tho. As for the future, I tend to find it weird. I want a better future and sometimes think, in a tight situation, "don't worry. Tomorrow this will be over." I love thinking that the future is open and that better days are ahead. I often wonder what it will feel like doing things ive never done. Absent of anxiety, that is. With anxiety, whole different story. "Tomorrow is bound to be worse than today" when anxious
• How do you act when others request your help to do something (anything)? If you would decide to help them, why would you do so?
i help those i'm cool with or at least neutral towards. If the individual is full of nonsense and lazy or offers no value in return, no way.
• How important is efficiency and productivity to you?
I've been lazy all mylifr and I never stopped hearing about it. So just to prove people wrong, I will move bricks and mountains. Whichever is important to a degree of thinking "less is more". Productivity is alright too, but at my own pace ofc
• What are your hobbies? Why do you like them?
i listen to music, journal, watch cartoons and movies, work out, walk, try to find ways to "fix" my life (my friends tell me this is what I do most), play games, try some good food, meditate (I tend to neglect this one), research interesting things, draw, accomplish a goal
• What is your learning style? What kind of learning environments do you struggle with most? Why do you like/struggle with these learning styles? Do you prefer classes involving memorization, logic, creativity, or your physical senses?
I hate classes with lots of aural input from a lecturer, If it triggers my misophonia.i prefer learning things practically. explanations will just have me needing to read more and try to focus on boring notes. Using my hands and brains is preferred. I score high in Kinesthetic for VARK tests. Oh, and visual. I prefer classes that involve logic, creativity and physical senses. I can memorize things but this is the most tedious learning style for me.
• How good are you at strategizing? Do you easily break up projects into manageable tasks? Or do you have a tendency to wing projects and improvise as you go?
I can strategise when needed. I weigh the task up first. If the task at hand is hard, I will break it down and dedicate more energy to it. Else, I'll just do what feels right. I even ignore instructions sometimes.
• What do the "highs" in your life look like?
The flavour of the world feels warm, with a tinge of coldness. I would feel as if my suffering paid off and I am nowhere except where I am supposed to be. That there is no rush and no need to care of what others think about me. Where I can just do what I deem best amd find a balance between stability and adventure
• What do the "lows" in your life look like?
Nightmares, hypichondriasis, overthinking, rumination, anxiety, panic, jealousy, having no autonomy
• How attached are you to reality? Do you daydream often, or do you pay attention to what's around you? If you do daydream, are you aware of your surroundings while you do so?
I daydream quite a lot. But I will still feel what's around me enough to get somewhere where I can be in my head in peace. XD
• Imagine you are alone in a blank, empty room. There is nothing for you to do and no one to talk to. What do you think about?
I like empty rooms, especially if they used to be lively and full of people in past events. Goes to show that no matter what happens, some things remain. I would think of what life would be like if I were to live here forever. I would also be reminded of that meme where there's just a futon, a screen, a fridge and a katana: "all men need to be happy". If the room has no windows or doors, I'd be scared. Assuming it has windows and a door, I would look outside, eventually. How big is the room? If it's a HUUUUGE empty hall, that's so cool. I'd walk around and imagine myself in some great elvish building and maybe even lie down to see the roof. I even dreamt of such a building before, hexagon shaped cross section.
• How long do you take to make an important decision? And do you change your mind once you've made it?
I take a bloody long time to decide on anything important. For instance, i took 4 hours to decide what race my DnD character would be. Once I've made my decision, I will not regret it unless it goes wrong
• How long do you take to process your emotions? How important are emotions in your life?
I have always tended to act on emotion but i have been more balanced in the past 4 years. I regulate them to not make a mess and use them to deem what I will and will not tolerate in the future. I enjoy expressing them
• Do you ever catch yourself agreeing with others just to appease them and keep the conversation going? How often? Why?
No. Cause that's fake. If I don't agree, I'll just say "cool" and move on. Why talk if I'm going to say what YOU want to hear? I must say what I want to say.
• Do you break rules often? Do you think authority should be challenged, or that they know better? If you do break rules, why?
Yeah, but I often get told that what I'm doing isn't right and then I just get mad at the person that told me that. "No sir you can't wear shoes in this room" I'll think cwell, screw you too!" Besides that, I often follow the rules of any given institution well enough.

Looking for a chased within an apartment complex can be troublesome. An apartment complex can have from 3 to even over 100 different apartments. In this context of the post, It will mean a vast complex of corridors on multiple heights and a certain amount of doors. Here are some tips to help. If you have any to add, feel free to comment or post.
Sometimes the chased can disappear behind a corner or an elevator door. If they have disappeared and there is a corridor to the left or right, it is better to go left if it ends quickly and right if it is a longer corridor. Humans are usually right footed so they will escapeore often to the left when they can get to a safe point either way. If they know that they will run for a longer periods of time, theyost of the time will choose right as it seems better to them as a longer run route. Try for yourself. Many will think that running to the right will less likely get them to an dead end. It may be instinct.
When on elevator, humans will likely press the bottom middle left button. It is the button placing that gives most comfort to above average chased. Start from the floor where the button was pressed most probably. Then go upwards. If chased entered from a floor higher than floor 1, go immidiantly to bottom and wait. Do not go to the parking underground if there is one. Wait a minute and a half or so. Do not go to basement.
When you have a suspicion of the chased running to an apartment, try to remember their body language. If they run decisively, it probably means that you should go with the main direction that you last seen them. Their goal is near If they seem less organized in movement, try to go with the direction you last seen them, but watch around you as if they are smart enough, they will know that their goal is too far and try to hide around corners. If they will not and keep running even more didorganized, then feel free to use your stamina, as there will be probably no obstacles to cut you off from the chased.
When the chased shut door before you, try to bash it immidiantly. Especially if the complex seems not too modern. The doors often don't have automatic locks. Do not reach for handle as it will give them time to lock door.
Wait on the opposite last second turn if they get to an apartment. It is better to wait it out if you can't get in. If under pressure, try to stay in proximity of the complex outside, preferably near the gate from within inside, if they have something like that there. Do not wait outside of the gate. It will be predicted from you more easily. Try to blend in naturally with environment.

[Australia] Hi All,
I've been working at a warehouse from the 70s (not IN the warehouse though, just an adjoining office but I do walk around the warehouse when needed) for about 3 years now and lately been having a great deal of anxiety about asbestos that was in the building). There was no ceiling under the asbestos roof and having read an excerpt from this pdf from the Western Australia health site I'm having concerns.

ACM roofs have been associated with ACM dust contamination of unlined sub-roof areas, likely due to the abrading of overlapping ACM sheet edges with temperature changes. This has been detected in larger commercial and public buildings such as sports halls where the lack of a ceiling resulted in ACM dust contamination of underlying occupied areas (photo 9). In the case of residences such contamination is more likely to be confined to the ceiling space and based on size may be less, but will increase in level and associated hazard the longer the roof stays in place.

The warehouse in general was always dusty and parts of it were pretty caked and my mind is running about the dangers if there was indeed ACM dust flying around the warehouse all the time with the forklifts driving around. The place was ventilated to an extent with large garage doors but it didnt cover everything.
That said, the asbestos roof was removed and replaced about 2 years into working at this place but in general the place is still very dusty with soot/dust coming from the use of the gas forklifts. I've spoken to the builders that were in charge of the removal (legit guys with airmonitoring and everything) and anyone else I can speak to in regards to the asbestos in the warehouse and they've all said it was clear and certificates were issued to assure that. The last person I need to get ahold of speak to speak to will be the ownelandlord who to my knowledge had an auditor assess the building for insurance reasons including asbestos observations, hopefully he did aidust monitoring in previous years but that is why I am following up.
My concern is that due to the age of the warehouse roof the underside may have been releasing ACM dust as per the excerpt before the removal.
Wondering if anyone experienced in surveying can weigh in on this. Thank you in advance.