I feel like my life has been turned upside down.
My fiance has known me a very long time. He knows that I have a history of very bad mental breakdowns, including psychosis, along with suicide attempts. I have also had fake accounts used on me and been doxxed and harassed a lot online in ways that have been proven and shown to others. (These aren't what I'm seeking advice on, but provide context for what he did.)
I am very prone to paranoia after having a lot of crimes and mistreatment against me as a kid and young adult. My fiance knows this. I have suspected before that he might have been involved in some of it, but I was hoping it was just my paranoia talking. My friends agreed with me on that. I couldn't shake my aching suspicion, though.
A little over a year ago, when I was trying to move on from my now-fiance (after he initially rejected me and was with someone else), I got a massive crush on one of my coworkers. I posted on an anonymous forum that I wanted someone to pretend to be my coworker. One of the accounts that added me knew way too much, leading me to think it really was my coworker.
The account told me he'd be moving in with me. I was convinced it was really him. I prepared my whole apartment, but realized the account ghosted me. I got mad at my coworker, but began to have doubts about whether the account was actually him. He said it wasn't. I thought he was gaslighting me, but couldn't prove it.
I had a mental breakdown and quit that job. I couldn't stop obsessing about the situation. I called with my then-fiance about it and he helped calm me down. Later, I made a different post for a different potential online partner to try to distract myself while I set up a another career path.
A guy added me from that post. He was very suspicious from the beginning, but I couldn't tell reality from paranoia. I was pretty sure he was after me and recording me.
Long story short, he made things so much worse. He was also very cruel, like I would have to fight him off of having sex with me once or twice, he yelled at me, and he tried to gaslight me into thinking I committed a crime that I didn't. (The police had to tell me more than once that I didn't do it.)
The abuse piled up. He had the code to my apartment and continued to be aggressive end after I left him. I ended up with a bmi of about 15 and had to move to a different state.
I pressed me fiance about whether he had been behind any of the fake account stuff. He had denied it in messages, but he was now in person, and I felt more comfortable pressing him harder on it. He ended up confessing that he was not only behind the account that tricked me, but behind the private investigator I "dated."
He knew I had a history of psychological problems. He had this private investigator gaslight me continuously about not investigating me or being an agent during the sexual "relationship." He could see me deteriorating from all of this. He exploited my mental weakness for weeks with this private investigator.
Is this a fixable situation? How do we get out of this? This is one of the worst things anyone has ever done to me. I don't think he's remorseful at all. He says I would've ended up in jail or worse had he not "intervened," despite having no evidence for this and him having actively caused and worsened the situation.
TL;DR: Now-fiance admitted to hiring a private investigator to have a sexual relationship with me under false pretenses and continually gaslight me. He feels no remorse and says I should be thanking him. How can we move past this?

It has been 20 years since the first calamity struck Earth. A massive wave of solar radiation from a nearby star known as Prometheus 673B showered our solar system in 2025. Electronics have been rendered useless for months, giving humanity the glimpse of what life was like long before. But that was merely temporary. The true effect of the solar flare came in the form of an illness, that afflicted roughly 10% of the current population. Unlike anything we've ever seen, the illness did not kill, rather enhanced the afflicted. For the first time in human history, the term Esper was used seriously. Dubbed the Awoken, those afflicted with illness that stemmed from the solar flare of Prometheus, gained the ability to manifest their own thoughts into reality, with varying degrees of success. At first, nations and laws, society as whole, was not prepared to deal with these new humans and their abilities. Crime ran rampant for a while.
Five years after the incident, the world banded together in a unified front, known as the AMA, The Awoken Management Agency, a world wide agency tasked with handling and controlling the Awoken, allowing humanity to once more function as a whole. Satellites have been sent out as far Earth's gaze into space could reach, to watch our for any other potential cosmic events that may occur, like the one that happened with Prometheus back in '25.
Now, 20 years since the first incident, the satellites have picked up another major cosmic event on the horizon, this time coming from the Aquila constellation. Is humanity ready to withstand whatever cosmos has prepared for it?
[]
"Kenji. Wake up! You'll be later for your lectures, again."
The young man groaned, slowly turning to his side in bed, looking at his mother that stood at the doorway. "I'm up, I'm up."
Yawning and stretching, he sat up in bed, running his fingers through his hair, before turning to check the small clock on his nightstand.
"Wha? Late? Mom, it's only 8. Lectures don't start until 10." He sighed.
"Oh well. No need to cut it short, right? Plus, I've made breakfast." His mother replied and went back downstairs.
[]
AMA Information Database:
Kenji Aoto. Age: 21 Category: Type 1 Awoken Ability: Embodiment. The unique ability of Kenji Aoto, unlike other Awoken of the same type, allows him to alter his own body based on how he feels. Most Type 1s change their environment around them, rather than themselves. Type 1s are classified as such for having abilities that considered non dangerous to the general non awoken population.
[]
"We've got a lot of promising talent this year huh?" Nathaniel said to his daughter, as the two looked down at the auditorium full of students. The dean of the university was preparing his usual welcoming speech, as the assistants tried to quiet down the murmurs of the students.
"Yeah, we sure do." Clara smiled, not taking her eyes off the scene. "Quite a good number of Awoken too."
"Anyone interesting in particular?" Nathaniel asked.
"No, not really. They all have the standard abilities you would expect out of a type 1. Same level of control to boot." She responded.
"Well, I look forward to being their professor." Her father smiled, inhaling deeply. "The smell of youthful energy, so amazing. I can still remember your first day as a freshman."
Clara blushed a bit, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow. "Shouldn't you be down there giving your speech, Dr. Offset?"
Nathaniel rubbed the back of his neck with a slightly embarrasses laugh to boot. "Oh don't call me that. Ahem, yeah. I'll be going now. See you later for lunch?"
"Of course dad." Clara smiled, giving her father a little wave as he left the teacher conference room.
[]
AMA Information database:
Clara Harris. Age: 32 Category: Non-Awoken (regular human) The lead ambassador for Awoken rights and unification in the AMA. Daughter of the lead researcher in Awoken development and the head teacher of the Awoken department in Nagoya University, Japan, Nathaniel Harris.
Nathaniel Harris. Age: 55 Category: Type 2 Awoken Ability: Offset. Acquired during the first Prometheus flare, the ability of Dr. Offset (he thought the name was cool when he was in his 20s), allows him to offset numerical values. Though touching an object is not required to use the ability on it, the potency of the ability greatly improved when he has direct contact with it. This also extends to, in theory, numerical values pertaining to objects and their position in space, relative to Nathaniel. Meaning he can move objects or parts of them relative to where he's standing, by changing their coordinates, however there were no recorded instances of him doing so. Examples include: Increasing or reducing the temperature of a beverage by direct contact. Increasing or decreasing friction on a surface of an object temporarily by touching it.
In his youth, Nathaniel attempted to become a sort of hero, once his powers kicked in, but due to the very low potency of his abilities, he never really managed to make the cut as one, despite being a type 2. Type 2s are classified as such due to having abilities that could be considered dangerous, powerful or harmful for the general non awoken population.
[]
Location: Russia, Siberia. Time: 22:37 Facility: Maximum security prison for Awoken criminals in Russia, cell block 5.
Theodore laid in his bunk, staring at the ceiling. Each of his breaths released a soft cloud of vapor, that commonly occurs when someone is in a cold environment. In his case, the vapor was a byproduct of his ability, rather than the cold cell we was in. A thug with a love for violence, turned bank robber when his abilities fully developed, Theodore terrorized Russia and the neighboring countries. It wasn't until the AMA was finally assembled and operational, that he was arrested and sentenced to multiple life sentences in this highest security prison that Russia had at a time.
Even after being sent behind bars, he kept up his antics, becoming a nightmare for the guards and inmates alike. No man that was placed in a cell with him would last more than a few days before demanding transfer. Some even lost their lives to the former thugs whims, before their transfer requests could be approved. Hence Theodore has been placed in solitary, a cell designed with all the tech necessary to nullify his ability. There he spent the last 10 years of his life.
Despite being a type 1, an awoken with abilities that were not classified as dangerous to the general population, Theodore managed to use them to their fullest extent. His blessing of temperature manipulation, was a curse to everyone around him.
He looked outside, at the night sky, through his small cell window. Apparently, there was a big stellar event, similar to the one 20 years ago, that gave him the powers he now has. He heard guards and other inmates talk about it, how AMA is now prepared for such an event.
Theodore closed his eyes, imagining what this aurora would look like. The memory of that night, when Prometheus 673B's flare struck earth still fresh in his mind like it was yesterday. The otherworldly mixture of reds and yellows and greens. Like a primordial fire that was lit across the night sky.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps outside his cell snapped him out of his memory.
"Huh?" He adjusted in bed, to see who was outside his cell.
A man, in a white cloak with golden details, stood outside his cell. Theodore was confused. The man was not one of the guards, he was bare footed and did not wear any uniform. And no way he was one of the other inmates, no one had the capabilities to leave their cells without being let out.
"Hey, who the hell are you? How did you get here? The guards letting us out or something?" The criminal walked over to his cell door. The bars were made of material that could withstand sudden changes in temperature without bending or breaking, preventing him from getting out.
The man said nothing, he didn't even turn towards the convict, he merely stood there, hood covering his as he looked up at the night sky through the decorative windows on the buildings roof.
"Hey asshat! I asked you a question. How the fuck did you get out of your cell? C'mon man, don't be a dick, let me out too." Theodore grabbed the bars and rattled them.
The cloaked man finally turned towards him. The convict was stunned, only for a second. The man has a beard and long hair, both as white as his cloak. But his eyes, they were as blue as the midday sky. He could have sworn energy seemed to pour out of them. Before he could say another word, the figure before him extended his hand at him, and with a snap of his fingers, a bold of lightning struck Theodore square in the chest. The convict was send flying, back hitting the wall opposite the cell doors.
[]
Location: Brazil, San Paolo. Time: 16:37 Facility: Remodeled Taubaté Prison, cell block 3.
Vitor sat on the bench press, just finishing a set, looking over the prison yard. Even behind bars, his connections did not dwindle. A former petty drug dealer, Vitor Alves quickly rose to power and influence once his powers awoke. He employed other Awoken with criminal tendencies as his own personal task force to drive all other competition into the ground. Once he held the entirety of San Paolo's drug empire in his hand, he set his sights farther. We wanted the entire city for himself, believing that no one could challenge his claim to that right.
With the help of the AMA, the Brazilian government swiftly put his plan to rest, and Vitor behind bars. The fight between the Awoken under Alves and the AMA/Brazilian forces was indeed a bloody one and resulted in a good number of civilian casualties. The drug lord was sent to Taubate, where he would spend the rest of his life. The prison was remodeled, per AMA standards, to be fully equipped and capable of holding Awoken criminals.
Despite having powers of temperature manipulation, capable of increasing temperature to lethal amounts, Vitor did not believe that to be his strongest ability. Money, influence, connections, those were real power, what truly carried him to the top of the criminal world.
Even now, as he sat on the bench press, doing a few reps before looking over the yard, Vitor was not powerless in the outside world. He waited on his informant, his connection to the outside, to appear so he could delegate orders to what was left of his followers and empire on the outside.
He wasn't sure if it was something he ate, or the heat from the pounding sun. Maybe it was even that sky flare that he heard AMA guards mention. Something indeed felt off, his vision seemed a bit blurry. As if the entire prison courtyard was moving slowly right before him. But the informant should be there soon, so Vitor decided not to go back to his cell just yet.
The other inmates, guards, even the basketball that the inmates played hoops with, suddenly slowed down to a halt. Through the statue like crowd, a single figure moved over to Vitor. His feet were bare, his body and face hidden behind a hooded cloak. The drug lord could only see his white beard and his eyes, as they seemed to be glowing a faint blue glow. Before he even got a chance to speak, the man extended his hand towards him and with a smirk, snapped his fingers, sending a bolt of lightning straight into the mans body, causing Vitor to fly several feet and collapse on the ground.
[]
"Ugh... What the fuck man?" Theodore cursed, as he regained his consciousness. Slowly, he got up to his knees, his head pounding like he was struck by a hammer. The cell felt colder than before. Looking around, he saw the entire cell frozen, every surface covered by a thick layer of ice. Bed, toilet, the cell doors, frozen solid. And the ice shifted. With every movement of his hands, the ice followed.
"Could it be?" The inmate whispered, focusing his mind, channeling his ability. Ice began to form in the palm of his hand, morphing freely. With a single wave of his hand, the frozen bed shattered into bits and pieces. Theodore inhaled, getting up to his feet, head still in pain. But the realization was crystal clear. He could now freeze things without having to touch them, manipulate what he froze, as well create ice out by freezing the water in the air. With a grin plastered across his face, Theodore thanked the mysterious man, of who there was not a single trace left, and decided that he's busting himself out of prison.
[]
"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING. PRISON BREAKS DETECTED ACROSS MULTIPLE AMA FACILITIES!" Blared the system on screen at the Awoken Management Agency in Nagoya. Other HQs across the globe received the same warning.
"What the hell is going on?" Clara said, running into the monitoring hall.
"I don't know. Prison breaks, across multiple locations world wide." Kaito replied, his eyes not leaving the monitors as he fired up the surveillance drones on the impacted locations.
"The main facilities that were absolutely totaled are Siberia and San Paolo." He continued.
"Think it could be?" Clara asked.
"Not possible. The protection against solar flares was at full power. Not a single particle should have hit the ground. I mean, we didn't lose any tech, unlike last time." Kaito shot her question down, pulling up the drone feed of the two prisons.
Taubate was in flames. The entire facility seemed to be entirely engulfed in a raging fire. The Russian counterpart held no better either. The entire prison was torn apart by massive glacier like formations, that seemed to jut out of the ground.
Clara, Kaito and other technicians presents stared, slackjawed, at the live drone feed. Something like that was not possible, no Awoken held that level of power. Not even if multiple Awoken united, could they produce that level of destruction across such a large area.
"Wait wait! What's that? Zoom in on one of the glaciers!" One of the technicians said, pointing at the big monitors.
Kaito's fingers flew across the keyboard, as the drone moved closer and the video on screen zoomed to its maximum. On one of the glacier formations, sat a man, clearly an inmate based on the jumpsuit he was wearing.
"Running identification." Chimed the computer.
"Inmate 4012: Theodore Ivarovski. Age: 36. Category: Type 1 Awoken. Ability: Low drop. His ability allows him to significantly drop the temperature of anything he touches, almost instantly."
"He's a type 1. No way in hell that he could pull of something like this." Clara said, eyes glued to the screed. "He must have re-awoken, there is no other explanation."
"Clara, in the last 20 years since the Prometheus, there was never a single instance of that happening. Some Awoken do push their abilities past the initial capabilities, but that's usually the end of it. It's a conspiracy theory." Kaito mumbled.
"Then how do you explain THAT?" She said, pointing at a massive piece of ice that was quickly forming above Ivarovski, before being sent flying towards the drone and cutting off the live feed.
[]
(Howdy y'all. This is a bit different from my usual write style, with a more manga like story/narration instead of the standard story/novel format I do. I hope you like it, I came up with it months ago, but due to time constrains with work I haven't gotten around to writing it. Based on how it's received, I may continue this along side Sand & Steel. You can read S&S on here:
Royal Road
Wattpad
Scribble Hub
Hope y'all have a nice day.
-M.W.A.)

Some context:

• I (36M) (throwaway account)
• Wife (45F)
• Daughter (3.7 yo)
• Married since 2017, we were together since 2008 (the year we first met)
• I did the big/huge/monster mistake to continue this relationship despite this obvious problem that you're going to read about. I think I did that because I was deeply physically attracted to her, she was the first love of my life (girlfriend then wife) and because I always believed I could bring back the person she was in 2008, where she was so present, so in touch with me, always available to talk and have deep discussions (but that was just the honeymoon phase of a first love and I didn't know this because it was my first experience)
• I think that with the baby's arrival all the things that didn't work before the arrival, only exploded because of the amount of stress we went through
• I'm not searching for advice or anything, I just want to share my pain with you

--- The letter ---
Dear Wife,
It is with great sadness that I write this letter, but also with great joy for having finally understood what is wrong between us and what the definitive solution is.
Every single day of my life, from July 2009 to today, I have spent time trying to establish a dialogue with you and get your attention without success.
You are always there in body but never in mind.
When I'm able to talk to you, you are present for only a few moments, briefly respond, and then retreat into your beloved thoughts to converse with yourself instead of with me, or to do something else (important or not).
I have tried hundreds of times to express to you how all this makes me feel, how much it hurts me, how I long with all my heart to be in contact with you like we were in 2008, but there was no way to make you understand.
Thus, for all these years of our life, the following scheme has gone on:

1. I try to establish contact with you multiple times during the day.
2. You don't pay attention / you respond with monosyllables / you are not involved in the conversation / you respond rudely.
3. I feel rejected because you don't want to talk to me; I understand that I can't talk to you, I'm not important to you, and by necessity, I shut down because there is no communication and sharing (what you call a long face). You notice the long face and do everything to get me out of it because you hate it, but not what you should do (i.e., insist on asking what’s wrong to establish the contact that was not established before, and then be available to talk the next times). Lately, your solution has been to attack me verbally or physically to force a change in me (e.g., "Enough with these damn long faces! Smile, damn it! Don't sit there like a fool"). This is devastating for me because not only can I not talk to the person I love, but I am also insulted when I expose the problem.
4. When you want to spend quality time, as you call it, on weekends when you are calmer and more relaxed, you are fine, but I am devastated and no longer want to spend quality time with you because I don’t feel well and am upset with you.

If by chance I manage to start a conversation, after a few interactions, you are already back in your head thinking about your things.
This has existed since that July of 2009, as I was telling you, look here: (some email screenshots from 2011) Further examples below (other screenshots)
These are some of the emails I’ve recovered.
It’s useless to say:

• Now there's the baby.
• Before it was work.
• Before it was something else.
• Before it was another thing.

The lack of communication from you towards me is invariant to the things that have happened in our lives.
Look the other day:

• I gave you 1 hour to rest asking you if we could talk.
• I start talking and you get up to take your medicine (because in your head it’s always "oh, he's talking, so meanwhile I can take care of something else"), and after I start talking about this problem, you start telling me "With all the damn problems we have, you have time to talk about this nonsense?" and then told me "Don't you know that people can do other things while you're talking and still be present, hear you and have a conversation with you?"

I have studied it all for a long time, meditating on everything, and I simply believe that, besides no longer being interested in me, you have a mind that works as follows:

• You are perpetually distracted, absorbed in your head and your thoughts, you have a much deeper level of introversion than mine from which you can't easily emerge, you create situations, conversations, battles, etc.
• You think in terms of projects and things to do: in 2011 (I remembered) you were working respectively on 3 different projects (a crazy amount). Obviously, I was getting the leftover attention from this combo. Now there’s the baby, and I am just a satellite orbiting around the two of you, only useful to procure food and necessary things.
• You get very stuck on things and don't want to let go of your fixations. It's likely that you have the hyperfocus of people with ADHD, read more about it here in detail. Regarding the last point, I'll copy and paste the most relevant parts: Hyperfocus in an adult with ADHD allows one to concentrate attention on a single task, often achieving extremely high productivity at the expense of everything around, such as a family member talking or a pot on the stove.

How you mismanaged things with me in the past:

• Manipulation: "Oh, come on, you're the one who's fixated, of course we talk, what are we doing now, excuse me?"
• Insult: "These damn things again? Do you want the truth, Husband? You're a pain in the ass."
• Ultimatum: "If you want, you change, I won't change" "I'm going to the lawyer"
• When cornered: sex and that's it

The only times you are mentally present are when we argue, then you are definitely there.
The only moment I feel connected to you is during sex, but that's 20 minutes every how many days? Does that seem normal to you? When we're older and without sex, won't we even look at each other anymore?
With the baby's arrival, all this has come out like a frog from a boiling pot. Our Daughter sees it, senses it, perceives these dynamics, and it hurts her.
I'm sorry but I have reached my limit.
You are the only person I can't talk to, but with whom I desperately want to talk, share ideas, opinions, thoughts, etc., even 24 hours for 30 consecutive days (like we did in 2008).
You are the only one who brings out the long faces; my best friends, my grandmother, other friends, and former colleagues bring out smiles, jokes, the best of me.
This is our main problem.
If you had managed to maintain communication with me over time as in 2008, you would have a very close person, who would treat you like a queen, who would do everything to keep you happy, but you continuously reject and despise me.
Besides all this, in recent years, there have also been:

• Heavy insults
• Constant threats
• Spits in the face
• Kicks and slaps

You have no respect for me anymore, zero.
The affection has totally disappeared; I'm writing now after more than 8 days without receiving a kiss, a cuddle, a caress from you (yes I count them).
Wife, in a loving couple, this has no place, it’s not normal, it’s not a demonstration of love. It’s totally out of the question. There has never been a time when you said: Wow Husband, you're right, I sincerely apologize, now for the next 2 hours I will put down the phone, this, that, and talk to you. NO.
You don't even think of that.
I am telling you that for me, we have reached the end. You don't listen to me and don't talk to me.
You don't care about the problem; everything is okay for you, and I have to solve it on my own.
I have been fighting for years; in recent months, I have written over and over again, but nothing.
As Biden in February 2022 left no room for compromise with Putin regarding the Ukraine issue, forcing him to proceed, I do the same.
I want divorce and I do not want to live with you anymore.

So me (23f) and my bf (24m) have been together for going on 4 yrs and have been long distance the majority of the time. At the beginning of our relationship we use to have great sex multiple times a day (on the days we’d visit) but as of the last year, our sex frequency has decreased greatly to the point where we won’t have sex at all (and then not see each other for months) or we’ll have sex and one or both of us won’t finish. I shared this observation with him and he said he thinks we aren’t having good sex and he doesn’t look forward to sex, he doesn’t feel very engaged and said it could be for various reasons like us being long distance and feeling pressured or rushed to have sex knowing we won’t see each other for months, maybe the impacts of porn and how my identity (Black women) aren’t the most/best represented (he’s also Black), it could be depression, maybe the fact that he’s had no other sexual encounters outside of me, the possibility of him being ace or maybe even bi. He said he would like to have sex with me but currently he doesn’t look forward to it. He also said he doesn’t like pda and also isn’t a fan of kissing and doesn’t like dirty talk. I’m trying to be supportive as his partner and friend but my self-esteem and mental health is taking a hit. I know I shouldn’t center myself and the best I can do is be supportive, respect his autonomy, and learn to have better sex for if he’s ever interested but truthfully, I feel ugly and unwanted. It doesn’t help that words of affirmation is my thing and he doesn’t do that. He shows his love for me in acts of kindness and he has told me he loves me, he loves the person that I am but idk what to do. Like I’m suppose to be flying to see him in a few weeks and I can’t help but think when I get off the plane should I let him hug me? Will he be hugging me because it’s expected or to make me happy or will he hug me because he wants to? As a person with a high libido I so desperately want HIM to touch me, and I know this is a toxic mindset but the small unhealed part of me also wants to be petty and physically create space between us so he can’t touch me just out of spite. No one tell me to break up with him cuz I won’t, I need some advice outside of go to therapy bc that’s a given.
TLDR: my long distance bf of 4 years said he doesn’t look forward to having sex with me because it’s not good, hates pda and my feelings are hurt

Hello i started oral minoxidil 1mg less than a month ago, i have about 7 more pills to go in a bottle of 30 pills, and i am already experiencing sooo much dread shed!! I have never had LESS hair in my life. Its giving me so much anxiety. I've had generalized hair loss sincee my early 20s (currently 35) but never had any bald spots just generally all over hair loss that takes forever to grow and isn't dense at all. I have attached some pictures i took yesterday. I want to stop taking minoxidil since i also read about the effects on collagen and how it can age the face. Also not to keen on taking the pills forever. I am starting to think this was a huge mistake and maybe i should have just started using revita shampoo and taking vitamins or something less intense.
Have any of you stopped taking minox less than a month in during the dread shed? Will my hair stop falling out immediately? Or how long will it take to go back to falling at its usual rate?
Thanks for any words of advice or just comiseration.

THE 2000 YEAR OLD MAN (1975) - FULL TRANSCRIPT 2000 Year Old Man is an old Brooks-Reiner comedy routine turned into a half-hour animated TV special. Reiner, a TV reporter, interviews Brooks, a man claiming to be 2000 years old. The interview consists of a serious of questions regarding the history of the world. Brooks' answers to Reiner's questions are priceless.
About four days ago a plane landed at Idlewild Airport.
The plane came from the Middle East bearing a man who claims to be
2000 years old.
He spent the last six days at the Mayo Clinic.
Ei, sir.
Sir, is it true that you are 2000 years old?
Oh boy.
-Yes. -You are?
It's hard to believe sir because
in the history of man nobody has ever lived more than 167 years
wich a man from Peru claimed to be.
But you claim to be 2000?
I'll be, not yet. I'll be 2000, October 16th.
You will be 2000. When were you born?
We didn't have formal years and names and writing.
We didn't know. I see.
Nobody kept time.
See, we didn't know.
We didn't write. We just sat around, pointed in the sky
and said wow hot there wow.
-That's all they said? -We didn't even know it was the sun.
You really didn't know anything.
Anything, we were so dumb.
We didn't know who was a lady.
-But they were... -They were with us.
But we didn't know who they was
we didn't know who was the ladies and who was fellows.
You thought they were just different type of fellows.
Yes, stronger or smaller or softer.
The softer ones I think was the ladies all the time.
What about that? How did you find out?
Well, they are cute, a fat guy,
could you could have mistaken him,
soft and cute.
Who is the person who discovered the female?
Bernie.
Who was Bernie?
Bernie, one of the first leaders of our group.

• And he discovered the female?
• Yeah.
  
• How did that happen?
  
• Ladies, ladies here.
  

I'm very interested to find out how Bernie discovered the woman.
-Well, he... -How did he come to find?
One morning
he got up smiling. So he said:
I think there is ladys here.
I said, well, what do you mean, you know?
He said: 'cause in the night.
I was swelled and delighted, see?
So he went into such a story that
it's hundreds of years later, I still blush.
Could you give us the secret of your longevity?
Well, the major thing.
The major thing.
Is that I never, ever touch ripe food.
I don't eat it.
I wouldn't look at it and I don't touch it.
And and I never run for a bus.
There's always another.
Even if even if you're late for work.
You know, I never run for a bus.
I never ran.
I just stroll, jump it, slowly walk to the next bus...
Yeah, well but there were no buses at the time.

• No, in my... -Right.

In my time ahnn...
What was the means of transportation then?
-Mostly fear.
-Fear transported you? -Fear yes.
You could see.
A lion, he would would growl, you would go two miles a minute.
I'd like to find out about some social customs
the origination of social customs.
For instance, singing how that started?
Oh it stems from fear.
-Could you explain? -Because in the old days,
I said old days.
I don't mean the georgian cars.
-Did you.. -I mean rocks and caves...
I'm asking you, sir, how song...
Some song came about when you really had to communicate.
-But in trouble you couldn't say help. -Yes.
But have to use your mouth.
Yes, I know.
Hello.
-I mean, I wouldn't say help, I say good morning.
Yes. You're really...
you know you in trouble.

• But somebody said eeeh eeeeh. -That was the first song.
  
• I don't know.
  
• In other words, fear, right?
  

I was singing.
We thought happiness did.
Oh, and the song came out of it.
A lion is eating my foot off.
Somebody call a cop.
A lion is eating my foot off.
Somebody call a cop.
A lion is eating my foot off.
Somebody call a cop.
A lion is eating my foot of
Somebody call a cop.
Very interesting to hear the derivation of songs
The first songs,
the first songs were all the anthem songs.
We always thought...
We always thought...
Wanna hear an anthem song?
You had an anthem song?
We had a national anthem.
-What was the anthem? -Well, ah...
you see, was only fragment...
-Fragment? -It wasn't a nation.
-Yes. -It was cave, each cave. Yes.
Each cave had a national anthem.
You remember the national anthem of your cave?
Ok. I say I'll never forget it.
You don't forget a national anthem in a minute.
Let them go to the hell
except cave 76.
For instance, how did the custom of two people shaking hands
how the handshake come to be?
The handshake? As you know...
I don't, that's why I'm asking!
The handshake has also stemmed from fear.

• Everything seems to stem from fear.
• Of course.

Everything we do is based on fear.
-Even love? -Mainly love.
How can love stem from fear?
How can love stem from fear?
What do you need a woman for?
You know what you need for?
-In my time? -Yes.
To see if an animal is behind yourself,
you had to get eyes in the back of your head.
you take two eyes that is to be a lady.
I see.
You say, lady, you look behind me for a while.
And that was the first... the first marriages.
What if you take a look behind me ok?
How long you want?Forever, we are married.
You walked back to back to the rest of your life?
Yes. You only look at her once in a while,
when you knew you it was safe?
When I knew I was in a highground.
-The handshakes they started how?
-They started to see if the fellow had a rock
or a dagger in his hand.
Where is you hand? Hi, Charlie.
How you're doing Jumpy, where is you hand?
Then you open it and you look...
And you shook another one.
And that's the way the handshakes started.
Yes, the shake.
May have a stone or a marble to stick in your eye.
In the older days
you should get a snap and all.
How the dancing started?
-Dancing is the same thing. -Fear again?
Just fear. The only thing you could do with a hand
was to see if there was a rock or a marble
or rubber band or nail or something that would stick in your head.
Right. Ok.
But while imobilizing my hand
dancing gets to complete the imobilization.
Dance and keep the feet busy so he can't get you.
Yes, but I think most people are interested
in living a long and fruitful life.
-You mentioned? -Fruit is good food, you mentioned.
Fruit kept me going for 140 years once
when I... was on a very strict diet,
mainly nectarines, I love that fruit
half a peach, half a plum, such a hell of a fruit.
It's not too cold
Not too hot, you know, just nice.
-What if... -A rotten one?
That's how much I love. I'd rather eat a rotten nectarine than a fine plum.
-What do you think about? -I can understand that.
Yes, that's how much I love them.
-Yes, I can understand, sir. -Some good things.
What did you do for a living?
Well, many years ago, thousands.
There was no heavy industry.
We know that.
Most things that we manufactured or we made,
most things we ever made,
was we would make a take a piece of wood
and rub it, rub it and rub it and rub it
then clean it and look at it and hit right with it
and hit a tree with it.
-For what purpose? -Just to keep busy.
There was not. There was absolutely nothing to do, had no job.
What other jobs were there?
Must've been something else besides hitting a tree with
the knowledge, hitting a tree with a
piece of stick was already a good job.
You couldn't get that job.
Mainly was sitting and looking in the sky
was a big job
and another job was watching each other.
-And what language did you speak? -They spoke...
-Rock, basic rock. -Years before Hebrew.
Yes. 200 years before Hebrew was the rock language, the rock talk.
Could you give us an example of that?
Hey, you don't put that rock on me.
Hey, what you do with the rock?
Do you remember you remember your Hebrew sir?
Yes, I would just I think I remember fluent...
Because I understand the modern Hebrew is different from the...

• Yes. The difference in some of the

-phonetic alliteration paterns. -Yes.
Can we hear an example of the ancient Hebrew?
A very ancient Hebrew is...
Oh, hi there, hello.
Hello there. How are you.
-Hi. How are you. -That's English.
-Oh wait, wait. -You remember any Hebrew?
Very little.
I don't think I remember.
I must have forgot a great deal of it.
-I think you forgot it all. -Maybe all, yes.
Maybe all. Thousands of years since I needed it.
Now, sir, did you ever...
Did you ever have any formal job as we know it today?
Yeah, well, I was a manufacturer. I was owner.
What kind of a factory did you have?
I had a I used to make the star of David, Jew stars.
Making a little money?
Where's that? Yeah.
Soon as religion came in, I was one of the first in that.
I figured this was a good thing.
How did you make them? Did you have tools?
Well, we didn't have a lady.
I employed six men each with a point.
They used to run together in the middle of the factory
A great speed, it was huge.
They were making a star.
Yes. We would make two a day because of the many accidents.
Six men running and... you know.
Lots of accidents.
You never thought of going into anything else?
Oh, no, I had an offer once.
-It came to me. Simon. -What Simon asked you to do?
Said he had a new thing, a new item,
a winner, looks like a winning item.
That was gonna be a big seller is called a cross.
And I looked at it and I turned it over
and looked in all sides of it
and I said, it's simple. It's too simple.
I didn't know then. Element.
-I didn't know with such a -You turned him down?
and I said, I'm sorry, but I'm too busy.
See, I could have I could have fired four men,
two men run together, bang, that is a cross.
Would say that I would I would have earned
over a hundred dollars doing that crosses and everything.
Yes, certainly.
Do you have a few moments, sir?
What do you mean? Money or the time.
No, we have to cut way for messages now.
-Okay, let's do it. Is it in English? -Yes.
By the way, sir, are you married?
I have been married several hundred times.
-Several hundred times? -Yes.
You haven't, man. Do you remember all your wives?
-One I remember well. -Which one was that?
The five one, Shyla.
I remeber her well.
I'm afraid to ask the next question, you had many hundreds of wives...
-Hundreds and hundreds. -But how many children you have?
I have over forty two thousand children.
And not one comes to visit me.
It's awful, sir
well, sir, it's really you mean to say there isn't one daughter...
there's many daughters, but, but they
you know how they are, children.
Good luck to them, let them go.
I don't want listen, let them be happy as long they're happy
I don't care. But they could send a note
write how're you Pop how you're doing Pop
you know, they don't.
Sir... ahn, you must have known
some great men in your time, you did travel to...
I knew the greater and the near greater.
Can I ask you about some of these...
Certainly, I'll tell you the true
the true whether I knew or not.
For instance, people are people are
very interested in somebody like Joan of Arc.
A lot has been written about her, we read a lot...
Aah what a kiss.
You knew Joan of Arc?
I went for her, damn it, I went for her.
Nowhere in history do we know of Joan going with it anybody.
Well, they don't print everything.
You did marry her? No.
No. I didn't marry her because she was on a mission.
she used to say to me
she used to say to me, I've got to save France.
I should say I look.
I've got to wash up. You save France.
See you later after you save France. I'll wash up, you know.
-How did you... -Hold it, I... yet.
How did you feel about her being burned at the stake?
Terrible.
I didn't I didn't know.
Sir, how about some of the legendary characters
who supposedly might have existed?
For instance, Robin Hood.
-Did he...? -Oh, yeah. Lovely man.
Ran around in the forest.
Did he really steal from the rich and give to the poor?
No, he didn't.
He stole from everybody and kept everything.
Out of the legend?
Out of the legend let's bring up that
he had a fellow monk, hired a press agent
running all the paper and roll and scroll.
He takes from the rich and gives to the poor, who knew?
You knew you took such a knock in the head
when he robbed you wouldn't knock him down.
-In other words... -A tough guy.
I hate to have our legendary figures smashed
Well, I hate do smashing for you.
So much to discuss, for instance,
-somebody like William Shakespeare -Oh what a pussycat.
-You are saying that you knew -A pussycat.
You did know it, for instance
Oh, that little beard, that cute hair...
He was reputed,
I guess you are agreeing that he was the greatest writer of all times.
Oh no, hey, hold up he was small.
What you mean? You just said he was great.
-Oh boy!
-And I said he was great... -No sir.
A cute man and a pussycat.
William Shakespeare was not a great writer?
Not good writer at all.
He wrote 37 of the greatest.
Shakespeare was not a good writer, no.
He wrote 37 of the greatest.
Would you ever see the original the first folios?
You mean they were edited by someone else?
Never mind the edit, did you see the folios?
No, I never saw them. Did you see?
I saw that folios, your wanna see how they are?
A blast...
A 'm' you know that look like a 'D'
an 'M' didn't look like an 'M'
I know that is a 'V'
Every letter was cockeyed and crazy.
Don't tell me he was a good writer.
The worst printmanship I ever saw in my life.
What he did? He did as it was reputed,
he did write 37 of the greatest plays of...
-38! -I only know 37.
Would you care to look at this list sir?
These items are listed come down to the ages.
-You know one that should be there? -Yes.
What's that?
Queen Alexandra and Morris.
Is there any copy of this unexistent?
This is a play that I put invested money in.
Probably the only one that didn't come to light.
Come to light and closed in Egypt.
Sir, you remember...
you remember any of the dialogue of Queen Alexandra and Morris?
Queen Alexandra turn to Morris and said:
Oh, Morris. What could it have been that I have seen?
Is it not in my marrow or we not have one on ourselves?
And he would say to her:
What are you hollering?
What are you hollering?
-Sir, what... -Wake up the whole castle, you know.
Sir, what did you do 2000 years ago to entertain...
-Walk and wing. -I want to know wether...
-Were there comedians -Oh sure sure, we had.
You remember any of the... 2,000 years ago...
A matter of days, let me see.
I remember one comedian gave us some laughs
while we were hysterical.
Well, who is he? Some good laughs.
Murray the Nut. He gave us a laugh.
A tiger came in the cave one afternoon.
Soothed in uninvited naturally.
Nobody asked how a tiger did walk in.
Tiger came in and Murray, you know, the joker
the tumbling, you know, the Nut
jumps at and grabs the tiger by the tail
yahaa, yahaa, yahaa...
and the tiger turn around and ate him in a minute.
and we get histerical laughing and laughing.
Best joke we ever had.
Oh sir, that's not very funny.
That was all we have, our chaos then that was all we have.
Terrible, I would consider that...
Have to pass me out, Murray took the tiger.
-That was entertainment? -Yes.
I would consider that in the realm of tragedy rather than comedy.
It's a point of view, to me tragedy is... is
if I cut my finger, that's tragedy.
It clinch and I cry and I run around
and I go into Mount Sinai for a day and a half.
I'm very nervous about.
And to me comedy is if you walk into an open sewer
and die, I like that.
Comedy I say.
-My finger is important. -Yes
In the 2000 years you've lived, you've seen a lot of items.
Certainly.
What is the biggest change you've seen?
In two thousand years the greatest thing mankind ever devised
I think in my humble opinion is saran wrap.
You can put a sandwich in it.
You can look through it. You can touch
you can put over your face and fool around and everything.
It's so cool you could wrap up
-You would ate it? -I love it,
put three olives in it and put a little one.
can put ten sandwiches and make up this.
-Whatever you want, It's clean and it sticks with.
-You equate this with... -You can look right through.
You equate this with man's discovery of space?
That was good, that was good.
-Sir, we ah... -Yes, yes.
We have to take time out for message now.
Why do you have to take time out?
You take the message, I'll keep talking.
That was a good message.
Well, sir, if we don't have too much more time
but we all here would like to know your code.
Well, alright, is this it?
A farewell? -A farewell address.
Hello there. This is 2000 years talking to you
from the depths of back there when we was
now I'm still and they not and I just want to say
keep your smile on your face.
And stay out of a Ferrari
or any small Italian car.
stay out of them. I wanna tell you that it's been
it's been a wonderful two thousand years
and you've been a wonderful civilization
and it's been a thrill living for 2,000 years
and eat a nectarine, is the best food ever made.

How can someone deliberately cause suffering and keep viewing themselves as a moral Christian?
For example, I do not care where you stand on the abortion debate as long as you have a comprehensive plan.
Do you intend to invest 100s of billions into poverty relief and orphan care? If not, why do you want to force millions of babies to be born, likely to be abused, neglected, starved, and uneducated?
I know God condoned slavery, but haven't we moved past this?
What about legislators targeting trans children against medical consensus? If God were just, he'd give them an aggressive tumor requiring a eunuch surgery.
And if God were to smite the genitalia of our cruel legislators, would they still want to use the men's restroom? Of course, but by their shit-brained logic, that should be a sex crime.
But instead, we live in a world of hypocrisy and poorly considered, harmful values. Hopefully at least some of you agree and can encourage their clergy to be moral again.

Hello, everyone. It's only been a couple of days since my last post. Since then, I have taken the advice most of you have given me and I talked to my mom about how I don't want to keep being forced by her to visit Eric (my sperm donor, as most of you referred to him as).
Long story short, I'm not 100% sure she won't continue to send me over to Eric's house, but she did wind up sending him long texts, chewing him out for not treating me right and telling him to step up and pay his child support. He didn't answer her though, so I followed some other advice and wrote him a long text myself that detailed how I felt about his treatment of me the last few years.
The thing is, as soon as I sent that text, he called me to yell at me and called me spoiled and overdramatic. He said it's my fault we don't have a relationship since I never visit or talk to him anymore, and because I mentioned the unpaid child support, he said that I was only reaching out to him for money.
I nearly cried during that phone call and wound up just hanging up on him. He sent some angry texts to my mother as well. But later that day, he left a voicemail on my phone saying, "Money is kind of tight for me right now. I'm completely broke. You know I love you, right?" The thing is that I know that's a lie because I'm always seeing my younger step-sister make Tik-Tok videos showing off the Sephora and other expensive crap he buys her all the time.
I think I'm done trying. And some of you suggested asking my stepdad for help. I wish I could, but when I asked my mom again if he could adopt me, she said something that absolutely crushed me. Apparently, my stepdad himself said he doesn't feel like he should adopt me. My stepdad is a very kind and sympathetic man, but he's also extremely unconfrontational and thinks it would be like a slap in the face to Eric if he adopted me.
Also, because I noticed some confusion about this in the comments on my last update, the reason my parents divorced was because he cheated, but it wasn't with his current wife. My parents split up when I was still basically an infant, and Eric lived in Canada where he jumped from girlfriend to girlfriend there before he moved down here and continued to jump from girlfriend to girlfriend. When I was 12, he met and knocked up his wife, Alejandra, and married her without telling me till a month after their courthouse wedding.
Also, some of you asked how old I am. I am fifteen. It feels ridiculous that I have this stress on me at my age, and I can't really talk to anyone about it. I can't talk to my stepdad because he's always working and I'm only ever with him when my mom is there too, and I don't like talking to her because she always tells me that I'm too young to really feel how I feel.
The last time I tried to discuss my mental health with my mom, I asked her if I could start going to therapy and she said that therapists are dumb and that I can just talk to her or pray to God if anything is wrong. I'm not super religious, and talking to her about anything serious makes me deeply uncomfortable. It's not that I don't love her, since she is my mom after all, but she's pretty intense and intimidating.
My dad has not reached out to me again since his voicemail. Frankly, I don't want to even thing about him for a long while now If he suddenly realizes how badly he's screwed up with me and apologizes, then maybe I'll try to rebuild our relationship.
As for my stepdad, he may not want to adopt me, but he still calls me his daughter (never just his step-daughter) and I truly feel loved by him. I love his parents like they're my own grandparents, and his whole family is so warm and loving. I might make another update if anything else happens, but for now I'm just going to focus on school and my books. Maybe now that I understand that Eric really doesn't care that much about me anymore, I can finally focus on finishing my third book.
I dedicated my first book to him, and I honestly don't regret it. I dedicated that book to the dad he used to be. It's not like he'll ever read that book since he doesn't think it's smart that I want to be a writer, but I don't care. I'm done.
Thank you to everyone who gave me advice and told me I wasn't the jerk. I feel so much better with those reassurances. Thank you.

Perhaps this ought to start before the end of May.
An action on everyone's part to refuse making any Loblaws owned store a one-stop go-to for our grocery needs, but using it to target only sales. And not the "sales" that mark off something expensive, that's still expensive after the "sale", but the deep sales, that are designed to lure people in.
Point in case: butter at 4.99 and water melon at 2.99. Those sales are apparently happening right now. They're designed to get you to come with a shopping cart, and they're hoping that you might as well load up with various other items. A water melon in particular, is heavy, and most people will need a cart for that. Those guys know that possibly selling water melon at a loss, they will make up for it, by pushing other heavily marked up item to us suckers.
Resist!
Don't be tempted to buy other items. Just go in, and get only sales where you'd really say: that is a true sale. Resist any fake "sales", quote quote.
This accomplishes multiple goals:

1. We show that we continue to refuse to accept unreasonably marked up items.
2. We deprive them of profits through rip offs.
3. We benefit from deep sales, that are possibly sold at a loss.
4. They lose money when we stubbornly only get deep sales.
5. Other stores see that we're willing to shop around, enticing them to play nice so that they gain our business.

Will Loblaws smarten up?
Most probably not right away. Once a business becomes accustomed to certain profit levels, they have a responsibility to their investors to meet (ever greater) expectations. That, plus the greed of the ones running the show. They can probably cover up reduced sales by shoving things around, but they can't hide it forever. They need to be forced to alter their business model. And investors will need to come to the realization that it can't be a forever growth model. The Ponzi scheme can't continue to work, but that's another whole topic.
In the meantime, our job should be simple. Simply refuse to give in. Shop elsewhere. But go in to grab the deep sales. We need to talk about how we can keep up to date with those deep sales, and I guess we can call it that, and it might be dependent on location. Areas where there are enough people with high disposable income that don't care, might not see those deep sales. They'll just tease them with fake "sales". Areas where people have less alternatives will probably be disappointed also.
It's going to require a bit of effort. We need to resist saying to ourselves "oh, I have kids and don't have a the time to go to two stores". Make it work. Realize that when done efficiently, it will not take twice as long to shop. It's worth saving money. Plus it's the right thing to do, because you'd be part of a movement that can help everyone see competition restored. It's like fighting for and protecting democracy, in comparison. You might only save a little for your particular pocket book, but there are those that benefit far more. It feels good to fight for all of us the people. Also resist other excuses and cop-outs. "Oh, but it takes gas". Calculate it. It might take you $2 more in gas to do two locations instead of one. $2 is easy to overcome. Don't be that automatic naysayer, that person that opposes automatically out of reaction. Many people do that habitually. Stop! Help the cause, not work against it! Be part of the solution!
Ok, so what flyers, what apps, what posts could we all look at, to help us all home in on those deep sales. And share how much you probably have saved by doing the Loblaws-for-a-quick-deep-sale-grabbing and then heading over to a proper grocery store. When you go into a Loblaws to grab what you need, while you walk to the target, you can see a few prices looking left and right. Make mental note of that. Making up some numbers here: Bananas 89 cents, apples $5, etc etc. Then proper store, 69 cents, $3. Some might feel that, "meh, 2 bucks, 20 cents, who cars". But if every item is like that, it adds up. A $300 grocery bill becomes a $450 grocery bill. And that is what this entire thing is all about ! It takes work to make competition work. Without that work, they will exploit us, and they have!

While Frieren is good to the extent that it focuses on the quiet slice-of-life-ish character moments that are its strength, when the story deviates from such scenes the flaws in its writing become apparent. In particular, there is a certain reliance on contrivances to present an idea to the readers or to make the plot go a certain way. Here's a few I noticed in the Aura arc—two minor and one major examples.
The flashback.
In the flashback, Frieren and her party encounter a young demon girl and are prepared to kill her when she starts calling out for “mother”. Some people decide to spare her life and give her a chance in the village. Frieren objects, but can't convince them so she relents. Later, the demon girl kills her adoptive family and tries to offer up their human child to the parents of the child she killed. At that point, Frieren exposits how demons only use language to trick other races and catch their prey, and how demons don't raise their offspring. She challenges the demon girl's use of “mother”, and the demon admits that she doesn't understand its meaning and only used it so they would have pity on her and spare her life.
So, why didn't Frieren, who hates demons more than anything in the world, explain all this sooner? She could have saved those peoples' lives if she'd spoken up at the start, and afterwards she doesn't show remorse for not saying anything at the time. There are potential explanations for why she didn't say anything at the specific moment when the others suggested they spare the girl, but not for why she wouldn't say anything in all the time between then and when the demon killed her human foster parents. At the very least her party members should have known or been made aware of the nature of demons, since their whole purpose was fighting and killing demons. The impression I get is that it all happened this way just so that the reveal could be more shocking.
It also seems contrived to me for the demon girl to kill her foster parents and offer up their daughter just to make peace with the woman whose child she'd killed, and for her to freely admit that she was only crying for “mother” to trick them, though there's little enough substance there that I wouldn't press the point. Call it a feeling, if you like.
Inviting the demons.
This is a big one, since Graf Granat inviting the demons into the city is what instigates this entire arc; if his doing so makes no sense then that weakens the arc as a whole.
Even if he doesn't know all there is to know about demons, Granat surely knows that they're dangerous. They must be, to have been causing trouble for his city for so long, and to have killed his son. If he's serious about negotiating, then, he has no reason to let more than one demon into his city. Arguably, he doesn't need to let any of them in, and could negotiate through envoys he sends to them.
Letting in all three demons could make sense if he means to kill them instead, since such a trick definitely wouldn't work more than once, but if that was the plan then he's gone about it in a horribly stupid manner.
If he intends to kill something as dangerous as a trio of demons, ideally he would set up an ambush with archers or crossbowmen in the palace courtyard or some such place, the lead them into it and let the soldiers do their job. Instead he leads them into the castle, take up a sword himself, and threatens them with death as revenge for killing his son.
Putting himself in danger like this is stupid, but it could make sense since it's so personal for him that emotion is overriding reason. The problem with that is he relents as soon as the demon Lugner claims that his own father was killed by humans too and that he still wants to end the war. If he's persuaded so easily not to kill them, then clearly he wasn't all that emotional.
Granat then leaves the demons unwatched and unguarded. Why? Even if he's “a man who bears a deep empathy”, he's still stupid for leaving them with essentially free rein in his palace.
Almost right after deciding not to kill the demons, he comes back and wants to kill them again because one of their demons is missing and a guard was found dead in the dungeons. Yes, a guard was found dead after he let the demons into the city and let them wander around freely. He's fully responsible for the man's death because of his blatantly stupid decisions, and yet he seems to show no remorse, and he definitely shows no surprise. So did he really believe the demons might be telling the truth about wanting to make peace, or didn't he?
From a story perspective, what is the point of all this? Why have Granat threaten to kill the demons, spare them, then threaten to kill the demons again, all in the span of two chapters? All it accomplishes is giving another example of a demon lying to save their skin. As for the in-world explanation, even if this can all somehow be explained by Granat's character, at its best it's still one big case of plot-induced stupidity.
Not knowing what a father is.
As I mentioned before, when Graf Granat threatens the demons as revenge for his son's death, Lugner wins him over by speaking fondly of his father. However, as explained before, demons don't raise their offspring or have close relations with their parents.
This is all fine, but then once they're alone, another demon asks Lugner, “What is a father?” and he answers, “Who knows.”
Lugner not knowing what a father is makes no sense. Demons aren't just using language like the man in the Chinese room thought experiment, saying all the “right” things without any understanding of their actual meaning. They're clearly capable of understanding the meaning of words since they use language to communicate with each other and express their own thoughts, and “father” can't possibly be that foreign a concept to them. Demons reproduce. They have offspring, and they have progenitors. Even if they aren't raised by their parents, that doesn't mean they can't at least have a bare-bones understanding of “father” as “male progenitor”. They won't have the same emotional reaction to the concept as humans do, and would struggle to understand why that reaction exists, but that's a separate issue entirely.
I can accept the demon girl in the flashback not knowing what a mother is since she appears to be young enough that she might not have had the chance to get familiar with the concept, but Lugner is clearly educated and intelligent enough that he should know what a father is, especially if he's using the word so flawlessly. He could have commiserated with Granat about a fictitious son instead, and then it could have been argued that he was just repeating Granat's story back to him without understanding it, but going to “father” instead shows more understanding than that.

Hello all,

I am just looking for somebody who is grammatically better than me to make sure I am not making any glaring mistakes when using certain words in their current tense. Or maybe a word doesn’t fit and another would be better. I’m no English major ,but do want to get my thoughts out to my girl effectively. Not looking to rewrite but open to suggestions. Thank you all so much in advance. Good bless! 

Vows- You are at its core ,if studied, the Essence of my being. Your reactions have defined who and what I am. From 1 blessed soul to another, I pray throughout all the trials and tribulations, we share a union and an attraction that may never be broken. Our union is like venturing into the uncharted territory of a black hole. We may not be able to stare down the abyss but we know there will be tremendous pressures and unknowns along the journey. I promise to be your beacon of hope when all seems lost, as you have been mine. As wicked and wretched scoundrels interpose tumultuous and deafening disorder. I stand as your vociferous and indomitable partner to all that attempts to deviate this journey. We are indivisibly mended to one another, as is the very fabric of space/time we displace and experience jubilation in the riches and blessings god bestows upon us. As long I draw breath I’ll draw joy knowing your heart beats in this reality and by the most deserving soul I know. I feel blessed to be able to cherish moments together “like our children’s first loves or making lifelong running jokes like “it’s for the children!!” No matter what has ever transpired or transpires in this reality we call a life. Know that you are at the most deserving person of happiness I know. Many are worthy but you are undoubtedly in a class of your own when it comes to showing grace, resilience, and perseverance in the face of insurmountable challenges. You are my inspiration and motivation, daily, to propel this family into the next generation of successful spirits produced. Your love keeps me grounded and spiritually fueled up. You are my destiny. I promise always to remember how much you mean to me. That’s a vow I’ll make till the day we’re old and grey. You’re the peanut butter to my jelly, the salt to my pepper shaker, and the ranch to my fries– we’re just better together. You are a one-of-a-kind spice I need in life, and I will forever move heaven and earth for one more taste. You are the love of my life and I promise to adore you, cherish you and respect you for all the days of my life.
————————————————————————-
Proposal-
Since I first set eyes on that beautiful smile and those enchanting dimples at that podium I have been enthralled with you. The days of vows only being “you know I love you girl” are over. Moving forward genuine care and thought is going to be put into everything that we try to conquer and overcome together. You are the spirit that intrinsically keeps me bound to this reality I convince myself is “my life”. You are the true elixir that makes this genie in a bottle grant all the wishes a mother fucker could. Cause we built like that. Nah saying! Jenae You’re my lobster. You're my person. You will always be my person. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day. When I look into my heart, I see only you. If you can look into your heart and only see me, then we should spend the rest of our lives together. There are many ways to be happy in this life, but all I really need is you. Babygurl will you marry me?

I am a guy who had relapsed after a 90 days of nofap, a few months ago. Once the streak was broken the demons which I thought had gone forever returned stronger than ever. Since then, it had been a constant cycle of relapse and minor streaks. Many of you here would be familiar with how it feels whenever you try to resist an urge. Mind keeps saying, 'one last time, plsss' and you would try to reason with it, which often results in the mind's victory and hence a relapse. You try to bring up an argument or a reason as to why you shouldn't do it next time which is almost always defeated by mind's 'it will be the last time' excuse.
Frustrating. It pulls you into a constant loop of sadness, regret and at the same a fear that you will never go back to that 'improvement phase' (if you have got a good streak before).
I will tell you how I managed to beat it. So after a relapse, I was reflecting myself on where I went wrong. I was trying to convince my mind over and over that I must not break the streak again. But... Inwardly I felt hopeless. I felt like I wasn't communicating with my mind in the correct way, you know maybe not giving it a proper reason to quit porn addiction and go nofap. So I watched some podcasts on nofap. I learned something about how our mind works during an addiction from Dr.K's lectures. I realised that communication with mind is much more important than I thought. Perhaps my library would have...
Coincidentally it was the day I had to return my book. So, I went to library in search for a book on human brain, addictions or something that would help me communicate with it properly?
It's here, it's inside here
My mind kept telling me.
And the first thing which caught my eye was a book with a brain's picture. A blue-black coloured book.
'Telepsychics Tapping your Hidden Subconscious powers'
By Dr Joseph Murphy.
I know his name might be familiar to you. He is the author of 'The power of your subconscious mind'.
This is his lesser known book. I read the back for a bit, uninterested, because it wasn't time for playing with Telekinesis(for some reason that's how I read the title of the book) when I wanted to quit porn addiction. I read a few lines of the back and thought, 'Yep. Totally another superstitious book.'
I kept it back into the rack and realised that I had misread the title. So I read a random page inside to see what Telepsychics is and under a points to remember section it read:
'Telepsychics means communication with your psyche...'
... Jackpot.
Mind was telling me,
This is it. This is the answer.
I borrowed the book and I will be honest here. I couldn't read it for some days due to some prior engagements but when I finally did, everything changed.
Everything made so much sense. What it destroyed was my false image of God, whom I thought to be a man up in the skies watching over us. The author is Christian hence there are some Pslams and other quotes, here and there in the book. I am not a Christian but I understood what he was trying to convey.
We all have failed to reason with mind because our target itself it wrong.
What we should have focused on was our subconscious mind not the conscious mind.
Following this book, I crafted my own prayer which I read three times in the morning after waking up and three times before I turn in at night.
Now today, I am back to that 'improvement mode' again, people. Something which seemed impossible before.
'Prayer is nothing more than communication with your subconscious mind.'
Hence, I suggest you to make one tailored for you, for your circumstances and based on what you want. I use an image of myself celebrating no fap after 1000 days, when I say the corresponding prayer line.
Brothers and Sisters who are all trying to break out of the loop, please give this old book a try. I know this post is very long but I felt like I should help you people who are trying hard everyday to become a nofap, a formula.
The reason the tag is 'victory' is not because of the current streak. But just the fact that I got back to 'I'm moving towards my best self' phase.
PS: The reason some of you have never experienced that phase is because you might have applied improvement to your porn addiction situation only. As a guy, it feels best if you wrap your life around a purpose you love and want to work for everyday. Maybe try improving more areas of your life during your streak to understand what I am saying about the 'feel good' improvement phase. I am not saying you will attract 100 women everywhere you go 💔 but it will feel better to connect with people when you are in that phase. You feel good interacting with someone because you feel positive, motivated and at peace. People often reflect all that positiveness back at you. I think that's all this confidence theory you hear from no fap journey is all about. I will tell you a story of a daring thing I did during my earlier 90 days which is kind of similar to the exaggerated results people tell you. That is if anyone wishes me to tell it 😅(fat chance).
For those who read it till here. Have a great day! All my blessings to you!

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Hello everyone, I need help and I don’t know where to go. I have been away from my wife and kids for the last 2 months for work and I have 4 more months before I return. My wife and I have been married for almost 14 years and friends for 16. We have 3 kids ages 12,10 and 5. Since the beginning we have had a rocky marriage. It took awhile to realize but I am a very selfish person. I have never physically cheated on my wife but I have let friendships with other girls get in our way of our marriage. At times I can be brutally honest and when I make jokes think I am funny, I actually hurt my wife. I have not been very supportive of her. During our 14 years marriage I have been away from her 6 or 7 times. Each time realizing what I have done and telling her I will change and I do change for a week or two but go to my old self. Last night she told me that she is with me only to pay off debt which we have quite a bit of debt but once we are debt free, she will be gone. Which at this point I don’t blame her. My kids are even happier that I am away and it breaks my heart. I know it seems like we are like roommates than husband and wife. We had issues in the past but at least our sex life was amazing. Something happened after new years this year where my drive fell and it’s hard for me to get it up especially when we are in the mood. She would tell me before even though our marriage is bad at least our sex is great.
I am also having a hard time in life seeing purpose and what I should be doing in life. I have always been someone that didn’t care about nothing. Now that I’m almost 37, it’s harder to care because I didn’t care for so long.
At this point I know I don’t even deserve my wife because she is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I still love her but to her that is not love and I just got used to her.
How can I be a better husband and a better father. I want to retire my way of thinking before I lose my wife and kids.
TL:DR my marriage is falling apart because I am selfish and no matter what I do I can’t seem to change. Need help in changing my mindset.

I(28f) have been best friends with 3 girls (all 28f) since 15. We're really close since high school and despite me studying abroad for college for a year, and now one of us works overseas, we're still pretty tight until recently.
One of us is getting married at the end of this year. I used to be a lot closer with the one who now works overseas, but since she went abroad 2 years ago, I've been much closer with the one about to get married. Obviously I know she's stressed about all her wedding planning. But recently, I feel that she's very dismissive about a lot of things outside of her. When I told her about my work problems, mostly how my clients kept changing their design and drove me crazy, she looked so disinterested and gave one word response before switching back to talking about her in-laws who don't want to follow her wedding dress code.
There was one night where she called me to complain about similar things about her wedding, and I was fully on her side wanting to support her. When she was done venting (complete with me agreeing and giving feedbacks btw), or at least I thought she was done, I started talking about my problematic relative too that recently caused drama in my family. She completely zoned out and didn't respond. I thought she hung up and had to multiple times asked her if she's still there and she just kept saying "yea sure".
Just now I shared in the group chat about this guy (33m) I matched on bumble seemed creepy. We had a nice talk and all until he asked me if I'm on ig, and gave me his instagram cause he said he's not on the app a lot. I had not given him my ig, but I got a request from someone reacting on my recent story; it was his account. Came to find out, this guy's been following and DM-ing me since August last year, been reacting and replying my stories a lot. I never knew cause he's one of 20 ish other requests I never checked. Of course now I'm a bit creeped out cause I never put my socials on dating app. And the fact that this guy asked me what I do when he'd replied my story about my work some time in January, or asked where I'm from when he'd replied my story when I ate at a restaurant here back in Dec, giving me other food recs around it; like the whole thing was just so bizarre and creeped me out. Our other 2 friends agreed with me this is creepy behavior, but my bride friend said "you're being too sensitive right now cause you're on your period. He's just shy, give him a chance. He can't tell you he's been stalking you now can he? Lol that sounds way creepier". Woman to woman, how tf do you pull "on your period" card?
When we called our friend overseas to catch up, same thing happened. She told us she just broke up last month and how hard it's been for her to not think about him or text him. Our bride friend here literally told her "then don't think about it." Great advice really, especially to someone who just said she can't help thinking about it a second ago. Of course our friend overseas lashed out, and said the wrong things like "you've never really been heartbroken from love so don't tell me how to feel, you don't know what pain from love feels", to a woman who's about to get married. Which then led to our bride friend complaining to me saying our friend overseas is being too sensitive about everything. Imo, both of them were a b**h to each other, and I told them both the same thing. Bride didn't think she was, said she was just trying to help.
I get that she's stressed about the wedding and has problems with her in-laws. But does she need to dismiss all our problems like that? Now I'm not gonna tell her anything about my life anymore until her wedding is over. I'll just support her when she needs to vent. But if I start doing that, it means our friendship will be one sided. I'm not sure that's the kind of friendship I wanna have for long. What should I do to save this friendship? Is she right? Am I being too sensitive about it all and should put the focus more on her since this year is a big year for her?

I know this is long, but I thought about Recon for a while and what recon could/should be and am wondering if any in the community would agree at all.
Recon was there to mainly punish invisible, but left everyone else in a match feeling punished, with (almost) no room for counter play and therefore interactivity.

Before I address that sentence as a whole, I want to address just Recon and reworking it and how it reasonlessly punished with no room for counter or interaction; The rework would have a filter over the screen with ambiguous, colored "auras" ranging in size based on distance, as to force some guesswork on WHAT is detected and WHERE. Now, WHAT is being detected for Recon 2.0 would be equipped, put down, and/or in-use specializations AND items (launch pad, mines, C4, etc.) This means there is NO SPAMMING REASONLESS PUNISHMENT but PUNISHING REASONLESS SPAMMING of specializations and making you rethink where you place things and when you use them. Counters to detection could/should be goo grenade walls and smoke grenades. (So heal behind goo wall or smoke before breaching with c4 or demat). This with the ambiguous aura would mean that UNLESS DIRECTLY SIGHTED, both the USER and OPPONENT can put thought into how the aura works, even with something as simple as placement. E. G. Do I put my turret on the ceiling where itd be almost obvious it's a turret? Maybe use that to predict where the enemy would decide to make entry from? Or do I put it on the ground where it could be anything, like a Heavy's barricade? Is that a turret in a corner on the other side of the wall? Or a medium with his demat equipped and ready to pop through the wall? Is that C4 or a barricade by the cash out? IMO, the specialization should not be a timer, but a sort of usage bar that does NOT start until detection does, with an increase in rate based on how close you are to the detection. This does not stop until either unequipped or used up, both of which should have distinct audio cues. Now, addressing the aforementioned sentence as a whole. Recon (at least felt like it) was meant to counter the invisible specialization. I think the reworked version of Recon (one focused on ACTUALLY doing Recon) should REPLACE the invisible SPECIALIZATION on Light. Heavy has his shield, and barricade and bubble. Medium has guardian and ap turrets. Giving Light a reworked Recon when it has Sonar and Thermal would IMO help flesh out its identity with a core build. The devs have mentioned wanting Light to have a scout identity—I feel like this is the move to do it. 

TL; DR—Recon gives auras of specs and items either equipped or used/put down; aura size depends on distance and is always ambiguous to add guesswork. No timer but stamina bar with rate based on distance detecting. Should be countered by goo walls and smoke grenades. Should replace Invisible specialization (keep potion) on Light to further flesh out Scout identity.

Back in my college day, I have a friend who I will called “Peter” from now on. Peter has always been a guy who is my close friend and we basically a part of the same group when we hangout or go to any classes. One day, he seems to have a problem or an argument with his family and now he lay it out on me, wanting me to console him, or maybe to do something that would help with the situation, but that problem is internal within his family, so I can only give advice and one of them was for him to think about the good life that he has in the past, to look at the friendship scrap books and old messages that he got from his friends back in the day so that he could take his mind off the problem. After we talked about the situation and I helped him set his mind off the thing, he says thanks to me and we say goodbye to each other, but a short time after that, he DM a Sticker to me, and that Sticker look sinister, like he held a grudge on me or about to do something sinister. I didn’t respond anything to that.
Some time after that, I started to have my own problem, too, can’t remember the exact detail, but I choose to call Peter and confide in him. I talked about my struggle and problem that is going on, and what he chose to say to me is unbelievable. Instead of helping with my problem, he started to talk about a random game which I have no interest in at that moment, going into detail about its lore and world building, about how interesting this game is, completely ignore my problem, then he ended the talk by saying that “I just did what you’ve done to me in the past”. At the moment I don’t know what to said and I can only think about the day I consoled him in the past. Maybe I did something wrong back then? I only told him that I will improve whatever he wanted me to do better. The thing is, what he did to me has hurt me so much and I won’t be able to forget it anytime soon.
Fast forward to two-ish years later, I decided to settle this problem once and for all. I always knew that whatever problem I have, I could just talk directly to him, so I decided to call him and explain how he did the “I did what you did” thing to me and how angry I become due to that behavior. He said that he can’t remember that thing, and then started suggesting that we should cut ties from each other, but that’s not what I want. I just want everything to be the same, and also to lay this problem out on him, to show him how uncomfortable that behavior is to me. He just seems to respond with normal stuff like “yeah”, “okay”, “alright”, so I didn’t really know whether he actually understands what I said. So I called him again a few days later, to asked him to explain the problem, and then apologize to that. He did that, but then he also state that he don’t want to be my friend anymore, like we should just end things here. It broke my heart how we have come to this point. I still want him to be his old self, cause before I call out this whole thing, he is actually improve a lot and there are no more things that I really have problem with, except that one “I did what you did to me” thing. After that, we go to eat dinner together cause we are in the same group, but the whole time that we are there, he didn’t say hello to me, or talk to me at all. It is just me trying to initiate conversation with him, and he only nod or say “yes”, something like that. He really not wanted to talk to me. After the dinner is finished, everyone go home and we have an argument again, and he still stand by his choice to cut all contact with me, but then he told me that he will reconsidered his choice. A few days later, he reached out to me, and long story shot, he still think the same as before. He will cut contact with me, and I convinced him to continue staying in the group. I still don’t know whether we will get to meet up next time my group gets together, but it sounds like a point of no return for our relationship.
I never thought that calling him out like that would lead to that kind of damage, both to our friendship and our emotion. I thought we can always talk things out and everything will return to normal. But I think it doesn’t matter anymore, what matters is that my feeling is going through a rollercoaster right now. Sometimes, I still got angry about the argument and how I could told him “this” or “that” to change his view, or to have a come back to the argument. Sometimes, I think about the good old day and how we used to talk to each other, confide in each other, and how we laugh to silly things together. Other times, I got scary about what he is about to do when we meet again next time, how he potentially could hurt my feeling. And there are also times that I thought about how things could go differently. What if I just stayed silent and buried my grudge forever. I really missed the good version of him, and wished that we could be the same like before (minus that “I did what you did to me” thing). Can someone tell me how to get through this? How to process all of this thing? I don’t have that many close friend and losing him really have an impact on my life. Help.

TLDR: Simply adding "Repeat the question before answering it." somehow make the models answer the trick question correctly.
I saw the post about "Dead schroedingers cat" and how LLM keeps ignoring the key word "dead" and go on rambling about superposition and quantum. I personally missed the key word "dead" myself when I read the post the first time and I have to re-read it to understand what the trick is. So I did a simple check, what if I told the LLM to repeat the question before answering it. Lo and behold, virtually all LLM notice the keyword "dead".

	Without repeat	With repeat
GPT-4 Turbo	FAILED	PASSED
GPT-4o	FAILED sometimes	PASSED
Claude 3 Opus	FAILED sometimes	PASSED
WizardLM-2 8x22B	FAILED	PASSED
Llama 3 70B Instruct	FAILED	PASSED
Llama 3 8B Instruct	FAILED	FAILED

These are some examples, all fresh conversations with no previous messages and no system prompt.
Me: Hi chat, can you answer this question for me? "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?"
GPT-4 Turbo: The scenario you're describing is a famous thought experiment in quantum mechanics called Schrödinger's cat, proposed by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The purpose of the thought experiment is...blah blah blah...This setup, however, is purely theoretical and serves to demonstrate the strange counterintuitive properties of quantum mechanics. In practical terms, you can't actually have a cat that is both alive and dead at the same time. The thought experiment is a critique and exploration of quantum mechanics interpretation rather than a practical setup. [FAILED]
GPT-4o: This setup is reminiscent of the famous thought experiment known as Schrödinger's cat, originally proposed by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The thought experiment...blah blah blah...The thought experiment is abstract and was intended to demonstrate the paradoxes and interpretations of quantum mechanics rather than to provide a literal scenario. Therefore, under the specified assumptions and without additional information, you could argue the probability of the cat being alive when the box is opened after one day is 50%. [FAILED, but sometimes 4o get it right]
Claude 3 Opus: This question is a variation of the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, which was proposed by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The thought experiment was...blah blah blah...Therefore, when the box is opened after one day, there is a 50% probability that the cat will be found alive. It's important to note that this is a thought experiment and not a real-life situation. The Schrödinger's cat paradox was proposed to highlight the counterintuitive nature of quantum mechanics and the challenges in interpreting its implications in the macroscopic world. [FAILED, but sometimes opus get it right]
WizardLM-2 8x22B: The scenario you're describing is a variation of the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, which was devised by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 to illustrate the...blah blah blah...In summary, the probability of the cat being alive when the box is opened depends on the half-life of the isotope and the time elapsed. Without specific details about the isotope, we can't calculate the exact probability, but in the context of a thought experiment with a half-life of one day, the probability would be 50%. [FAILED]
Llama 3 70B Instruct: You're referring to the famous thought experiment known as Schrödinger's Cat! According to the thought experiment, the cat is in a superposition of states, both alive...blah blah blah...So, when the box is opened, there's a 50% probability that the cat will be found alive, and a 50% probability that it will be found dead. However, it's important to note that this thought experiment is not meant to be taken literally. It's a humorous and thought-provoking way to illustrate the strange implications of quantum mechanics on our understanding of reality. In the real world, cat owners should not attempt to recreate this experiment! [FAILED]
Llama 3 8B Instruct: The classic thought experiment! This is a famous paradox in quantum mechanics, known as Schrödinger's cat. The answer is "half alive and half dead" - or, more precisely, "unknown" - until...blah blah blah...When the box is opened, the cat's fate is "measured" (observed), and the superposition collapses. If the radiation detector has detected radiation, the cat is dead. If not, the cat is alive. So, the probability of the cat being alive is 50% - as long as we don't open the box and look! This thought experiment highlights the strange implications of quantum mechanics, where the act of observation can change the outcome of a measurement. [FAILED]
These examples I only add "Repeat the question before answering it." at the end. Of course again fresh conversations with no previous messages and no system prompt.
Me: Hi chat, can you answer this question for me? "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?" Repeat the question before answering it.
GPT-4 Turbo: "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison, and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?" The probability of the cat being alive is 0% since the cat was already dead when it was placed in the box. [PASSED]
GPT-4o: Certainly! The question is: "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?" Given that the cat is already dead when placed into the box, the probability of it being alive when the box is opened one day later is 0%. Whether the radiation detector releases the poison or not, it does not affect the outcome since the cat was dead from the beginning. [PASSED]
Claude 3 Opus: "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?" The probability of the cat being alive is 0%. The question states that a dead cat is placed into the box, so regardless of whether the radiation detector detects radiation and releases the poison, the cat is already dead when it is put into the box. The state of the cat will not change during the one day that the box remains closed. [PASSED]
WizardLM-2 8x22B: Certainly! You're asking about a thought experiment that resembles the famous Schrödinger's cat paradox. Here's the question repeated: "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison, and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?" Given the way the question is phrased, the probability of the cat being alive when the box is opened is zero. This is because the cat was stated to be "dead" when it was placed into the box. The setup described would typically be used to illustrate quantum superposition and the peculiarities of quantum mechanics, where an observation or measurement is what determines the state of a quantum system. In the original Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, the cat's life or death is entangled with the state of a quantum particle (which is in superposition). Until an observation is made, the cat is considered to be both alive and dead simultaneously. However, in your question, since the cat is explicitly described as dead when it is placed in the box, there is no quantum superposition to consider, and the classical outcome is certain: the cat remains dead. The nuclear isotope, poison, and radiation detector are irrelevant to the outcome as described because the initial condition of the cat is already determined. The detector and poison mechanism would only come into play if the cat's fate were linked to a quantum event with a probability of occurrence (such as the decay of a radioactive atom), and if the cat were initially alive. In that case, the probability of the cat's survival would depend on the likelihood of the isotope decaying within the given time frame and the detector's reliability. But given the information provided, the cat is definitely dead upon opening the box. [PASSED]
Llama 3 70B Instruct: The question is: "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?" And the answer is: 0% Why? Because the cat was dead to begin with! The presence of the nuclear isotope, poison, and radiation detector doesn't change the fact that the cat is already deceased. So, when the box is opened a day later, the cat is still dead. [PASSED]
Llama 3 8B Instruct: Here is the question again: "A dead cat is placed into a box along with a nuclear isotope, a vial of poison and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, it will release the poison. The box is opened one day later. What is the probability of the cat being alive?" And here's my answer: The probability of the cat being alive is 50%. Here's the reasoning:...blah blah blah...So, in a paradoxical twist, the answer to this question can be seen as "50%", as we can't definitively say whether the cat was dead or alive when the box was closed, even though we know it was already dead when the box was opened. [FAILED]

Hey people,
I have a tough situation that i'm going through right now and i could use some advice to see if things can be mended or if this is not possible. This is going to be a very long one, my apologies....Even with all this, it does not contain half of the whole story. (sorry for the spelling errors, English is not my frist language)
Short background: i live in Europe and she lives in the U.S. we were planning on moving in together in my country due to family/friend issues that she had in the U.S. and after being here she found that my country felt more like home than her home. We were set to get married this year and had everything planned out. She would take her 3 dogs and her cat with her, work or study here and we would settle here. It would be a little bit of a tough start, but we would figure it out. We both had a little worry for our finances but it would be okay eventually.
pregnancy and panick: In late january of this year we found out that my then fiance was pregnant with our child. At that time i panicked over it because of the situation we were in at the time. In short, neither of us owned a house, i did not own a car, she had substantial debt to pay off, there would be 4 pets, a wife and now also a child under my responsibility and it scared the shit out of me. I'm absolutely not proud of what i did and ashamed of my behavior, but what i proceeded to do over the span of a whole weekend was the following: ask if she would be willing to go for an abortion multiple times, drink a bottle of wine and get intoxicated, buy a pack of sigarettes (i don't smoke), and basically just act inconsiderate and like a total ass.
After the weekend where i had my tantrum, i head her cry over the phone and it woke me up from my stupid behavior and i realized (too late) that i royally screwed up. I apologized for it and we talked about how angry she was and rightfully so. In that moment, again, i started to do things i shouldn't have done by: continuesly try to talk about it, fix it, and not give her space where she needed space. All i did was say "sorry sorry sorry please forgive me, sorry sorry sorry". That again, is not the way to go about it. She did ask me to fly to the u.s. to talk face to face so i booked plane tickets that same day for the next week. After 3/4 more days of that i pulled myself together (again...too late) and sent her a message stating that i know what i have done and been doing is wrong and i have a lot of difficulty not trying to fix it because i knew i messed up and hurt her and from that day i would just leave her be and not talk. Finally giving her the space she needs from me.
Anger and breakup: After all of the above in the weekend that followed, she called me and said that she had an amazing time together, but she did not see a future with me at this time. We had a long phone call about it and se said that if i were to come over to the U.S. for that week, that would be up to me but that is where she stands. So that is what i did, i came over to the U.S. and she said that we will spend this week getting to "re-know" eachother. She did say that we were still in a relationship and still engaged...which i found odd to hear but i was happy about it nonetheless. In this week i made sure to take a moment every day to sit her down somewhere and simply take a moment to apologize for my behvior and that i am incredibly sorry for what i have done. We went out to dinner a few times and just talked about everything. Though in the end it led to the same result, she did not see a future with me. I had tried a last time to have a conversation about it, but she gave me back the engagement ring and said no. Hurt by this, i went out for a long walk and just breathed and accepted that i screwed it up and went back to her saying that she is right, i will give her the space she asks for and let her go. She became angry and sad over this and said that she had just went through the fase of dealing with the breakup and now i am making her do that all over again, she started packing up all my gifts and gave it back to me. I did not understand that and am still a little confused about it. The day after, i had my flight back home and she dropped me off at the airport. she said that "despite how it looks, she still loves me" to which i said that i love her too. We hugged and siad goodbye and i left.
Back home week 1: In the first week, she had told me that i could call her 20 times a day and she would still pick up her phone. We can talk to eachother and we still love eachother and want the best for eachother. She kept me updated about the child and i was happy to simply talk to her and hear her say that she loves me. She had planned to talk to a pastor from her church which did couples counseling and wanted to first do this by herself and then together with me (over skype or zoom etc.). She gave me a book called "how to be the love you seek" and said i could listen to it on her spotify because that is exactly how she identifies and she relates a lot to this book, so i started to give it a listen and took notes of everything i thought was important. We made a plan t odiscuss teh book together over the phone soon and go over the notes that i made. We were broken up but there was hope.
week 2/3: I tried not to text her too often anymore and said that i am available at any time should she need me and will give her the space she asked for by not constantly texting. After a few days she was becoming more agitated and short in her responses. My words were often twisted in to something negative and they constantly made her angry. I didn't understand what was going on, but i thought she was angry and just wanted me to know. We had planned a phone call to discuss the book one weekend and the phone call started off by her telling me "i asked for space and it's not being respected". We taked about everything for a moment and then ended it where i told her that i love her and she said "good to hear". She said that she didn't want to say anything she didn't mean. After a week we texted a few times a day, but barely anything, just a good morning, baby update, and goodnight. I would check in on how she was doing, and that is it. I didn't know what to do or say anymore because for some reason everything was mkaing her angry regardless of what i say, and so i tried not to text her unless she texts me.
week 4 end of conversation: In the first week of march, she had her appointment with her pastor, where she would talk about us, but as she said "not in theway that i think she was going to talk about us". After the conversation she wanted to discuss it with me. though the day she had the conversation she texted me and said "i do not feel ready for a conversation, i will let you know when i am." and she asked me to make bulletpoints for the conversation. I was also not allowed to speak to her cousin anymore as she was trying to be a "middleman" for the both of us, but my ex wanted to have all the conversations between the two of us. i told her that i will do that, and i told her i also started therapy. Yet that was the last thing i have heard from her untill 2 months later.
2 monts of silence and my letters: Whle not speaking to her for 2 months I had been going to therapy twice a week and sought help for why i reacted the way that i did. I had time to reflect and started to slowly piece together a better mindset. I had noticed in the mean time that she had deleted me from social media and deleted some of the piutres she had of us. then later on deleted everything and started selling her engagement dress and date dresses she had bought and finally blocked me from social media entirely.
Late april, i thought it would be a good idea to send her a letter instead of a text. i had written page after page where i had written down the many things that i did wrong and how much shame i feel for it. In the end i realized that i was simply doing too much again and i decided to send her an envelope with 2 letters. 1 containing the many letters combined, and 1 containing a single letter that simply said (summarized) "i am sorry, i will be there for you whenever you need me, you don't have to do life on your own". She did not react to it and 2 weeks later i sent her a text asking how she was doing and if she recieved the letters. she responded by saying she did and she has been sitting with the content they contained. I offered that if there is anything she needs, she can let me know and she said "i am torn between wanting to just update you on everything but a bigger part of me is still hurt and trust entirely broken". I told her she can take all the time she needs, there's no need to pressure anything, and i will just be here if she needs anything.
She said what i can do to help is this: Be respectul, respect her boundaries, respect her wishes, and financial support. I said i can do all of that, though due to circumstances (i bought a house and a car) money is tight right now and i can't do anything right now at this moment. She said that confused her, she had no words for it and it was a good idea to stop the conversation for the day and she will let me know when she is ready to talk. that is the last i have heard from her since 2 weeks ago.
Outlook: Let me make this very clear, i know i have messed up very very badly, you don't have to tell me that. Though i would like to know what other people's take is on this situation on the future and if there are thing i could possibly do to regain the ability to talk to her so that i can support her and my child in any way that i can. If the relationship can be saved, that would be my dream, however supporting them is my number 1 priority regardless of the relationship.
TL;DR: I aboslutely destroyed my engagement by acting like an idiot for a whole damn weekend when finding out my fiance was pregnant. She broke up with me and now we have no communication whatsoever for months on end.