Practice book answers 6th grade houghton mifflin reading
I hate modern life, society, social media and modern technology
2024.05.19 15:49 aliagamy I hate modern life, society, social media and modern technology
Hi everyone
I, (M-17) have always been addicted to my phone and social media, especially when high school began. Due to my phone and social media addictions' highest peak and effects on me were during my high school years (I recently graduated and am heading to college), It affected my grades and GPA terribley and I barley passed my classes from 9th grade all the way to 11th grade, thankfully my senior year grades are much better.
My improvement in my senior year mainly came from deciding to delete the social media apps I had on my phone (Facebook, Instagram, ect) and recently, in the passed few months, I've grown a deep hatred for social media and that it's not about actually socializing anymore but fame and clout and that people will do anything for fame and popularity, ane example being the situation with Israel and Palestine. People would rather watch and film someone in trouble for views rather than help them out (not that a scenario like this ever happened but I think you get what I mean lol) Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids (mainly gen alpha) have only ever known these devices and are exposed to so much brain rot and inappropriate stuff online that they have half a brain cell (not literally obviously) and made up a new language (rizz, glazing, gyatt, skibidi, ect)
People these days relay on devices and modern technology so much that they've gotten so lazy and don't have motivation to do anything and even though I don't know what the 90s and 80s were like, I bet they were a lot better than this, not in terms of technology and modernization but how life and people were.(if anyone here is a millennial, please tell me how your childhood was like compared to today) phones and devices in general have negative effects on the brain with an impairment on its development and a huge drop in attention span. (Looking at you TikTok)
People are more isolated and depressed than ever before with little to no emotional or social intelligence. They're always glued to screens with an average screen time of 7-8 hours a day (not sure about the stats to be honest) I'm willing to bet my life that a few decades ago, people always socialized with one another and kids went out and played together, not stayed inside on their phones and tablets.
(This is unrelated but politicians today are so corrupt and only want power and nothing else, not the betterment of the people, country or economy, correct me if i'm wrong but I think this is all throughout history and not just today. I haven't done much research regarding modern politics but I can touch on that deeper in another post)
Back to what I was saying, life today is just you going to work, returning home, eating lunch, then just chilling on your phone untill you go to bed then wake up and do the same thing all over again, you don't even spend time or socialize with anyone. I'm guessing that during the mid to late 20th century, it was the same thing, just with more social interaction and no technology which means that you could do more useful activities like exercising or reading a book.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not any better than today's kids, but I'm trying my best to do better things than procrastinating and being lazy. I'm want to hear your opinion on everything I wrote in this mini essay.
Thank You for your time
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2024.05.19 15:49 iescapeddd1 [LONG POST] i feel like there's foreshadowing to a sequel or at least a dlc?? + my thoughts
please share your thoughts!!!!!!! alright, ive finished the game around a month ago but have spent the past month LIVING off of hl memes and ominis content, so i still remember most of the game vividly.
i think theres foreshadowing to a sequel, here's why: - if you dont turn in sebastian and talk to him, he'll understand your pov on the goblins and listen. if you do hand him in, ominis will talk to him and report that this has only made him angrier (..for whatever reason). this made me curious, because, well, by the time you do this quest it should be almost endgame, hell for some people they do the 'in the shadow of the...' quests AFTER endgame. it just seems an odd detail to add rather than 'oh yeah i talked to sebastian and he understands and hes sorry, the end'. maybe the devs set this up for a conflict point in the future, if you hand him in, for a sequel (or more likely a dlc).
-anne sees what sebastian has done to solomon, and this deathly sick (!!!) girl runs away to... where, exactly? again we get conflict that hasnt been resolved.
-less glaringly important but we get almost nothing about ominis. in the house cup bit hes just sitting down despondently because hes just lost his only friend and has to go back to his abusive family, who used crucio on him. also, ominis is quite vague about said family. leaves an open space that can be filled in with a sequel, because i would actually give my right eye to learn more about the gaunts ;)
-the MOST obvious plot hole - sebastian, in his usual delusions, seems to convieniently forget our emotional undercroft heart-to-heart about 'ill use ancient magic to save anne', before he goes and harnesses the power of a dark relic that causes only desctruction. (i ADORE seb but ominis is just so much better im sorry ;-; )YES i know theres the whole 'theyll become husks with no emotion if you take away pain', but sebastian hasnt been TOLD that. for all he knows, WE are the answer!! but nooo he must control the inferi because he is a teenage edgelord and nobody understands him. so yet again, unresolved conflict that could be saved for another time!!
-another huge plot thing - i personally went mostly goodie-goodie (except the unforgivables because come on!) in my first playthrough as a slytherin (going as an evil gryffindor next, lol). so this means i left the power of the resevoir alone. BUT! i have seen playthroughs where the resevoir is taken for the players own personal gain. is there any difference?... ...literally no. which is just ??? so maybe in additional gameplay, we could learn to 'hone' whatever new skills this grants us (more sequel-worthy than dlc-worthy, imo.)
-more a dlc thing, but quidditch. need i say more?
my thoughts: there is enough material here to make a worthy sequel.
not only did hl DESTROY its sales expectations (even with the boycott), its been so popular that it has a subreddit with over 300k people (thats where we are now weee), which is kinda insane for a 'spin-off' game.
they would be stupid NOT to make a sequel or dlc, considering the absolute bank they made from this one + they now know what people want, meaning the next game would be even better.
the plot could be-
- you start 6th year as normal. you'd probably be on the train because no special entrance for you! you're slumming it with the normies now. if youve handed sebastian in last game then hes not here and you can skip anything to do with him until i say so.
-if you didnt, seb is still here. he thanks you for all you've done, blah blah blah, and acknowledges the goblins innocence. hes worried sick for his sister who has ran away and wants to find her. you are dumb and havent learned your lesson (duh), so no matter what you say he'll convince you to help once you've found your feet in sixth year.
-ominis walks into your compartment. he looks terrible. you ask him if he's alright and he slips some gaunt lore about his family and on their.. ideas of fun, because come on i have a mad obsession with this dude, and if im the one writing this plot, we're getting ominis angst, suck it up. if youve handed in sebastian, itll just be you two. there'll be a train cutscene and boom, you're at school.
-this is where it gets tricky.
IF youve handed in sebastian. he'll be in prison. youll probably get some angsty moments and npc quotes along the lines of 'he seemed like such a good kid'.
if you HAVENT handed him in, the story gets weird, because a) more awkward time with seb because hes free and 2) he knows the goblins are mostly good. the actual hl doesn't have this big of a rift, so its hard to say what happens. however, its good because it gives us loads of choice, the lack of which in hl caused a lot of complaints.
-if he's in prison, sebastian escapes,(not azkaban, gotta keep with the canon. maybe because he is a minor he is sent to a lesser facility.) still blaming the goblins and holding such a hatred for them now that in his eyes, they escaped punishment and that it's his job to kill them all while extorting the cure for anne OR finding us to cure her.
-if he's free, we can either have a storyline of him NOT learning his lesson and maybe going to prison then instead of after he commits uncle-cide (dark magic go brr, because sister is gone) or some other storyline that would be more about our magic (!) and ominis' story.
-for the latter to happen, we'd have to have taken the resevoir's power. OR we can make up a rowling-worthy excuse of 'well MC was exposed to the resevoir power for too long so even though they left it alone it still diffused into them or something! [happy]'. i honestly dont know, this is why i want
YOUR THOUGHTS!!! -to make the selection pool shallower, lets go with the excuse. this will allow us to have seb's story, our magic story and also some ominis story (i am obsessed.)
-whether seb escapes or is already free matters, but in the end its the same result - hes not in prison. the only difference is that free seb doesnt hate goblins, and isnt on the run, and vice versa for escapee seb. both want to find anne and cure her. both now remember you have the capacity to do so (but they dont know about the taking-away-pain-turns-them-into-living-husks thing).
- we could go with the 'find escapee seb and convince him we're right and he believes us and everything goes back to normal' route, but boring.
-maybe escapee seb finds us, and ropes us into the same 'help-me-find-anne' crap free seb does to us on the train. yes, that means we dont have a choice, but there has to be SOME adventure. the goblin-hatred would def play in somehow - its too specific of a thing to include in the endgame to just leave it be like that! maybe his hatred causes him to do unforgivable things to some innocent goblins and he has a 'mAyBe Im ThE mOnStEr' epiphany moment, who knows. maybe it ties in to something bigger.
-the main story would then be along those lines. im still brainstorming the climax and ending but nobodys gonna read this anyway lmfao
-main quests would consist of lessons, sebastian-is-a-little-too-obsessed-with-anne-quests, and honing our magic.
-side quests would be mainly ominis-centric regarding his family/the gaunts, with a decent lot of poppy and garreth. we've already resolved natty's entire life at this point tbhđđđ.
-id like to think there's a happy ending. idk what will happen to escapee sebastian, will he go to prison or not?? this is literally the equivalent of a crackfic in my head, i WAS NOT expecting to write this much when i started writing this.
SO AGAIN GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS. PLEASE. ON EVERYTHING FROM THE PLOT TO MY SEQUEL THEORIES TO FEATURES AND INCONSISTENCIES. THANK YOU!! nowww some features!:
- quidditch, because yes
- morality systems would be a bit null here considering we're literally helping an escaped convict. but uh, we can try! just, like, dont cast the unforgivables everywhere you go ;)
- friendship systems with all side quest characters. like going from ehhh... to hellooo! with a side character would be awesome. the one thing hogwarts MYSTERY of all things got right was this.
- friendship and enmity systems BETWEEN characters, like, every sebastian needs their ominis ok. plus i want to help ominis bully puffskien dunkein I BEG, you cant tell me they dont have some rivalry going on ;-;
-romance? idk, not a romance person, this is for you sebastian fangirls to figure out for yourselves
-prejudice. literally what made harry potter, harry potter. there is like ONE audio with a negative view towards muggle-borns, and ONE that uses the word mudblood to my knowledge. everyone's just ok with everyone now? do malfoys and other death-eater's grandaddies not go to school here??? hello??????? this could and SHOULD be a topic for discussion in game or maybe even a side quest or side quest chain.
-extra but when/if seb escapes it should be on the daily prophet that ominis will show us in the undercroft or smth, i dunno
inconsistencies with my plot:
- loads of things havent been planned out. this is like a professional crackfic. (still has better plot than the cursed child though lets be honest :3 )
- everyone is easily convinced 'oh ok lets find your sister even though youre a dangerous escaped convict!'. sorry.
-itll be hard to mash everything in. but a half-assed plot is still a plot <:
-since its a continuation of 5th year, we already know many spells. there arent many useful ones left. HOWEVER!!! we can consult the fandom spell page, take offensive spells and stat boost them more than the 5th year ones >:) ALSO YOU LEARN ABOUT DARK ARTS IN 6TH YEAR, SO. ominis is not gonna have a fun time with those ones đ
-because we'll be searching for anne, like the actual hl game, less school time, :( sorry
-everyones just ok with us disappearing (if seb is an escapee). someone should pull a hermione and go 'hmm, MC starts disappearing shortly after sebastian escapes, and they never say what they're doing. probably ominis or poppy because a) favouritsm on my part and b) ominis knows us best and i headcanon poppy as knowing us well and knowing the dark arts and how theyre used a tad bit more than she gets credit for.
-loads of other things i havent seen, SO
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SHARE THOUGHTS, THIS TOOK ME AN HOUR TO WRITE AND I ONLY WROTE IT TO SEE WHAT PEOPLE THINK! TYSM
youre all amazing yayayayayaya
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2024.05.19 15:48 lightingnations I found my girlfriendâs secret Google account and it feels like our entire relationship was built on a lie
I met Luna on a train two years ago. Iâd just escaped from a toxic relationship, so romance was the last thing on my mind, but then she sat across from me in the carriage and asked about the book I was reading. She had a copy in her bag and wanted to know if it was any good.
I'd never felt such an instant, effortless connection with anybody before. I took a chance and asked her to dinner, and by the time the waiters cleared away our desserts, I already felt comfortable being vulnerable around her. So we went on a second date. And a third. And next thing I knew, we were planning our second anniversary.
In all that time she never gave off any 'creeper' vibes. Until a few months ago, when I stayed the night over at her place...
She'd gotten up early to use the bathroom. I grabbed her laptop off the side desk so I could catch up on some work e-mails, and the incognito tab was just sitting there. My first thought was:
either she's having an affair or she's got a secret fetish. What I found instead was a Google account with a photo album called âMichaelâs EXâ. In it, there were 427 photos of my
former girlfriend turned psycho stalker, Sadie. This included shots of âSadie the stalkerâ with her family, screenshots of her passportâthe works. On Facebook, Sadie's latest post said
Moving to the Philippines, and since then sheâd become a social media church mouse, so how did Luna keep her under surveillance? And how did you even get PERSONAL ID from a person halfway across the globe?
Down the hall, I heard the bathroom door swing open. Quickly I closed the laptop and pretended to be asleep until Luna planted a kiss on my lips. âWakey wakey Bugs.â
I faked a stretch. âMorning Lola."
(At school, the other kids christened me âBugsâ because of my cartoonishly large front teeth; I called Luna âLolaâ because of her blonde bangs and heart-shaped face.)
âHow about we grab a fry for breakfast?â Her smile didnât seem genuine, more like she was wearing a mask.
âCrap. I forgot Iâm doing overtime today, Iâve gotta get to work.â With that, I shot out of there faster than a bullet train to Tokyo.
Because I didnât wanna believe the worst about someone I cared so deeply about, I didnât contact the police (not that anybody couldâve guessed what Luna was up to) and made excuses whenever she asked to meet, delaying the decision whether to end our relationship.
At night, I couldnât sleep. Every time a hedge rustled outside, Iâd run to the window and pull back the curtain only to discover a black cat skulking around the garden. I put this down to my previous relationship leaving me with a mountain of unresolved PTSD.
Sadie the stalker
also seemed normal until we moved in together. After that she started picking fights if she caught me talking to another woman, even just distant relatives or childhood friends. The screaming matches went from weekly to nightly, only ever ending when I conceded to her every wish and gave her full access to my phone and social media accounts. I literally needed to grab my clothes into a bag and run away one night,
and then I started hearing noises outside my new apartment. And although I never found any evidence, I was pretty sure sheâd broken in at one point because the books on my side table were suddenly out of order one day. What hurt the most was Luna knew all this and
still acted the way she did.
Right as I reached my lowest point, my close friend Gertrude called and said, âThe universe is telling me you could use a sympathetic ear.â
I told her the universe didnât know the half of it.
Iâd met Gertrudeâaka my surrogate motherâon a flight to London. Passing over Wales the aircraft hit heavy turbulence, and the grey-haired hippie in the seat next to mine squeezed my hand so tight that my fingers turned blue. After we levelled off, she apologized and said, âSo whatâs calling you to London?â
âA job.â
A few glasses of wine from the service trolley later, she blurted out, âYou know your aura is strikingly similar to my husbands.â
âUhh, thanks. Where is he now?â
âOh, he burned to death in a house fire.â
Gertrudeâs eyes started welling up. To take her mind off the subject, I said, âI lied earlier. Iâm going to London because I fell in love with a Londoner.â I pulled up pictures of Sadie (back in her pre-stalker days) on my phone. âWe met in Italy. She looked flustered trying to read a map book so I offered to help. Next thing I knew, we were planning a trip to this place called Orvieto.â
âMichael, I
need to know how this story ends. Gimme your number.â
Since then, weâd met two or three times a year.
I laid the whole mess out over pizza. It was the first time since finding the Google account I didnât feel hidden eyes crawling all over me.
Just as I wrapped up the story, over in the corner booth, a family burst into a chorus of happy birthday. A waiter appeared carrying a chocolate cake, capped by a giant candle that looked more like a flare. Gertrude tensed up.
âSo what do you think about all this?â I asked.
She looked back at me and said, âItâs possible your reaction has been a touch on the dramatic side.â
âDRAMATIC??â
âWell consider things from Lunaâs point of view. Your last relationship lasted for, what, three years? Maybe she felt threatened.â
âI donât believe this.â I grabbed a cigarette from my pocket, but Gertrude snatched it away.
âYou know how I feel about you poisoning your lungs, Michael.â
âDonât
you start. I got enough of that crap from Luna.â
Gertrude always encouraged me to work through my romantic problems. Ultimately, I decided her love of fairytale romances clouded her judgement and ghosted Luna instead. But I couldnât escape her shadow. She always felt close. In fact, it got so bad that at a friendâs costume party several weeks later, my eyes kept compulsively scanning the crowd as if she was there in disguise, ready to pounce.
I stood off to the corner until, over the sea of heads, I spotted a beautiful stranger dressed as Jarlath the Goblin King. I took a shot of liquid courage and made a B-line towards her.
Halfway across the crowded room, beer splashed across the front of my Ziggy Stardust outfit.
âI am
so sorry,â a female pirate said, patting me dry.
âDonât worry about it.â Every time I tried circling her, she moved to cut me off.
âI am such a klutz. Why donât you come into the kitchen so I can clean up this mess?â
I put my hands on her shoulders and steered her out of the way. âItâs fine. Trust me.â
Approaching Jarlath from behind, heart slamming against my chest, I said, âWell this is awkward. One of us is gonna have to change.â
Jennie had bright blue eyes and dimples impossible to miss. Ten minutes into our debate about David Bowieâs greatest album, I said, âYou know Absolute Bowie are playing the Half Moon next week. I could take you?â
âSorry. Iâm going with my boyfriend,â she said with a sympathetic smile. From beside the buffet table, the pirate stared daggers in our direction.
âNo worries,â I replied, despite the fact I was brimming with jealousy.
The next day, as I jogged off my hangover, a brown-haired lady cut across my path and we both went spinning to the ground.
âFlip, sorry.â I rushed to pull her up by the hands. âIâm like a bloody zombie lately.â
She did a doubletake. âZiggy, right?â
There was no mistaking those eyes. âJarlath?â
âWell, Jarlath or Jennie. Eithers fine.â
âRight. Well, sorry again. Enjoy Absolute Bowie.â
Before I could jog away, she said, âHey, so that guy I was seeing? Turns out heâs a total prick.â
Jennie and I went for coffee. Coffee morphed into drinks. Drinks morphed into a steamy make-out session on my sofa.
But as she covered my neck in soft kisses, my stomach turned. It felt like cheating. So, I put the brakes on things and said, âI canât do this. Iâm really sorry. Youâre amazing, but I just got out of a serious relationshipâŚandâŚitâs justâŚâ
âHey, donât worry about it.â
We agreed weâd let our connection blossom in its own time.
Jennie had a playful mystique to her. Within a handful of dates, weâd developed inside jokes and could tell what the other was thinking. But Lunaâs imprint was hard to shake, to the extent I
almost mixed up the two ladiesâ names multiple times.
To detox, I suggested Jennie and I spend a romantic weekend in the Lake District, because after two days of hiking and kayaking my ex would no doubt be a spec in the rearview mirror.
Hours before we set off, however, Lunaâs mom called. She wanted to meet and wouldnât accept any excuses.
âLook, itâs obvious why Iâm here,â she said, sitting across from me in Starbucks. âEver since you and Luna broke up, sheâs been actingâŚ
different.â
âDifferent? Different how?â
âI call but she hardly answers. I go over to her place but sheâs never there. Now sheâs telling me she needs to find herself. Says sheâs moving to Australia.â
Her fingers tightened around her cup. âI need to know what happened between you two. And I donât care if that paints anybody in a bad light. Iâm just worried about my daughter is all.â
I told her about the Google account.
âDid you confront her about it?â
âHell no. I ghosted that crazy bitcââ I cleared my throat. âI mean, I justâŚstopped seeing her.â
She started crying so loudly customers at nearby tables paused their conversations. I touched her forearm, promised Iâd call if I remembered anything else, then set off for my romantic weekend.
But while Jennie and I enjoyed all that fresh air and pub food, a thought nagged at me. Luna adored London, so why move to Australia? It seemed so out of character. Back at our rented cottage, I was so fixated on the thought I needed a smoke, badly.
âWhat the
hell is that?â Jennie demanded, as she stepped onto the front deck.
I glanced at my hands. âUhh, a cigarette.â
âMichael! Donât be sarcastic. You know how I feel about those things.â
ââŚDo I?â
âUhh, well itâs the same as anybody else. Quit poisoning your lungs and put that thing out.â
âAlright alright, geeze. Sorry Luna.â
âThatâs okay.â
A knot formed in my stomach as she went back inside. Iâd called Jennie Luna by mistake. And she hadnât noticed. In fact, her reaction to me smoking was
identical to Lunaâsâeven the snappy way she said the âpoison your lungsâ line.
I followed Jennie into the lounge, where sheâd curled up on an armchair with a Colleen Hoover novel. She was hiding something. What else did she know about Luna? Maybe I could trick her into revealing some detailsâŚ
From behind, I started massaging her shoulders. âSorry for being rude before. I know what you said came from a place of love.â
âThatâs okay.â
I waited until her eyes drooped shut, then said, âIt really is perfect here, huh? Maybe we should stay forever.â
âWouldnât that be amazing?â
Her little groans of pleasure, the rhythm of her breathing, it all felt so familiar. I waited until the tension in her neck dissolved, then I pushed my lips against her ear and whispered, âSo how about we take this into the bedroomâŚ
Lola.â
âHmm. Sure thing Bugs.â
My hands froze. Jennie jumped up. âUhh, that felt so good, whyâd you stop?â
âWhat did you just say?â
âWhat did
you just say?â
âI called you Lola,â I replied, my arms frozen in midair. âAnd
you called
me bugs.â
âLike the cartoon, right? I thought itâd be a cute nickname. Anyway, Iâm tuckered out.â She forced a yawn. âWhy donât we get some sleep?â
As her hand laced with mine, an image of me waking up drugged and gagged and tied to the bedposts flashed before my eyes.
I said, âSure. I justâŚneed to use the bathroom first.â
The second the door shut behind me, I flew out of the house, climbed in my car, and sped away.
Within seconds my phone started blowing up with calls, followed by texts.
Where are you going? Is everything okay? No, I wanted to reply.
Iâm onto your sick little game. Whatever it is, Iâm onto it. Luna stalked my stalker, now Jennie somehow knew Luna and Iâs nicknames. How? Did all women take turns drawing straws and whoever picked the short one needed to become my girlfriend?
I couldnât go home. For all I knew, my exes wouldâve been there burning effigies of me. I needed a safe place. Somewhere I could lie low until I got all this straightened out.
âOf course you can stay,â Gertrude said over the phone. âIâm out with some friends, but Iâll meet you later. If you hop the side gate thereâs a spare key under the kissing gnomes out back.â
Gertrude lived in a detached house in Wembley. It took a bit of foraging to find the gnomes hidden beneath the weeds in the brown, patchy garden.
I needed to shoulder the door open. Inside, a mountain of letters and flyers had piled up on the welcome mat.
Down the hall, a huge archway connected the landing with a lounge, where a bar sat against the far wall, surrounded by upholstered sofas, a low table, and tie dye sheets strung over the filthy carpet. Everything had a real elegant vibe, despite the musty air.
Iâd drained two glasses of whiskey before Gertrude arrived.
âLooks like youâve had a rough evening.â
I said we could talk in the morning.
âNot a chance. You canât take negative energy to bed. Come on, confession is good for the soul.â
She sat on the sofa and patted the empty seat next to her. So, with a weary sigh, I shared a tale of deranged exes.
âCrazy,â she said.
âI sure can pick âem, huh?â
âNo, I mean
youâre crazy.â
âWhat?â
âThink about it. Whatâs more likely: that your exâs are secretly in collusion, or youâre being paranoid? Look how bloodshot your eyes are. Whenâs the last time you got a good nightâs rest?â
She made a great point; teenagers on the street occasionally shouted âBugsâ or âThumperâ at me. Jennie mightâve come up with the nickname herself. I pinched the bridge of my nose, groaning.
âLook, sleep here tonight. Tomorrow weâll brainstorm ways you can make it up to Jennie.â
I fumbled through my pockets for a cigarette.
âReally?â Gertrude said. âIf you insist on poisoning your lungs, can you at least do it away from my home?â
âWell if I canât smoke, Iâm gonna need a refill.â I shook my empty glass.
On my way toward the bar, a wave of wooziness hit me. My first instinct was to blame it on the alcohol, but there was something else.
It was her reaction to the cigarette. My finger ran through the thick layer of dust along the barâs countertop. Why was it like the place had been abandoned? Why did Gertrude always pressure me to stay with my psycho girlfriends? And how come she always reached out, as if on cue, whenever my relationships hit problems? It couldnât be coincidenceâŚ
I poured two glasses of whiskey and carried them to the sofa. âSo, youâre really against the whole smoking thing, huh?â
âOf course. Itâs a filthy habit.â
âYeah. Plus, there was that mess with your husband. House fire, right?â
âIâd rather not discuss it.â
âSure, sure.â I ignited the lighter with a roll across my trouser leg.
Gertrude grabbed a cushion and hugged it. âWhat are you doing?â
âAlright, cut the crap. What the hellâs going on? Have you been sending your friends to date me?â
âWhat are you talking about?â
I wrestled the cushion from her and held the lighter beneath it. âI want an explanation right now or Iâm torching this place.â
This was an empty threat. I wasnât some pyromaniacâI just wanted answers. Inch by inch, I raised the flame. âLast chance. Why are the women in my life acting weird?â
Gertrude grabbed for the lighter. As I swatted her wrists away, we both got scorched, and for a moment her skin went wild with spasms, a sensation I can only compare to reaching inside a bucket of wet, writhing maggots. My gaze whipped between her face and her hands, which vibrated like plucked guitar strings.
Before I could scream, she yanked me up, clamped a cold, wrinkled palm across my mouth, and forced me against the wall. I thrashed around, unable to move. For a lady old enough to collect a pension, she was crazy strong.
She waited until I ran out of breath, then said, âMichael, please. Iâm not going to hurt you. Open your heart and listen.â
What else could I do?
âYou were right before. I
have been keeping a secret from you. The truth is, Iâve been in love with you since we met. Iâd never flown before. And you were so so sweet. You started talking about this other woman, but I knew our energies were perfect for each other. And itâs like I always say, love makes us do crazy things. You canât begrudge me that can you?â
She looked as if she expected me to respond, so I shook my head.
âBut I think weâve reached a point where our connection is so deep we can be
completely transparent with one another.â She took a slow, steady breath. âMichael, all your exâs, Luna, Sadie, Jennie. Theyâve all beenâŚwell, me.â
I stared at her, confused.
She sighed. âItâll be easier if I just show you.â
Out of nowhere her hand wriggled again, then her face tightened, as though the skin was being stretched over the bone. Wrinkles smoothed out and colour bled into her grey hair, turning it brown, and within seconds I found myself face-to-face with Jennie. Even her vintage clothes morphed into a green blouse and white slacks.
âSee?â she said in Jennieâs voice, her now blue eyes locked on mine.
I screamed into the soft flesh of her palm.
âSssh, itâs okay. Iâm not gonna hurt you. Watch.â
Her entire body jerked and twitched, the muscles spasming as she shifted from Jennie to Luna. âSee? Think of these as costumesââfrom Luna to Sadieâ"the important thing is whatâs underneath. And youâve fallen in love with whatâs underneath three times. Now Iâm going to let go, but I need you to promise you wonât overreact. Understand?â
On the verge of a panic attack, I nodded furiously.
The second she pulled away I made a break for the exit. The thing posing as Sadie grabbed me and hurled me backwards against the wall.
Like a disappointed teacher, she put her hands on her hips. âIâve been so patient with you, Michael. So very, very patient.â
She blocked off any hope of escape. I sidestepped around the outer edge of the room, towards the bar.
âAll those years moulding you. Trying to grow you into the man I
know you can be. I really thought we had it this time. For the record, I wanted to do this the easy way. But drastic times...â
I was so scared I slammed right into the cabinet and yelped. Glass bottles chattered together, and then something wet ran down the back of my shirt. It was whiskey, leaking from the overturned bottle onto the carpeted floor.
Speaking more to herself now, Gertrude said, âIâll just have to keep you here until you love me as much as I love you. Of course, that means posing as you so nobody gets suspicious, but thatâs no trouble. Iâll tell your dad youâre moving to Italy. You always loved Italy.â
Pose as me? She'd been killing my ex's and taking their place, I was just the latest in a long line. Sheâd keep me as a personal sugar baby if I didnât escape, but how? She was impossibly strong, and the only thing that seemed to scare her wasâŚ
Snatching the bottle, I doused the remaining whiskey all over the carpet and furniture. As I flicked the lighter open, Sadieâs hands shot up.
â
BugsâŚdarlingâŚwhat are you doing?â
I took three slow, steady breaths. âBreaking up with you, you crazy bitch.â
I tossed the lighter forward. Within seconds flames sprung up all around us, spreading as far as the sofa. Sadieâs shoe caught fire, and as she stamped around, unintentionally fanning the blaze, her body writhed again, starting with the ankles. Fat boils climbed up every inch of exposed skin, milky white and with the consistency of frog spawn, like sheâd had a killer allergic reaction to poison ivy.
She dropped to her knees, wailing like a wounded animal. This was my chance.
I made a break for the exit, giving the creature as wide a berth as possible. But as I got one foot planted in the hall something clamped tight around my ankles. My chin hit the floor, then I started sliding backwards.
I twisted onto my back. Where Sadieâs left arm shouldâve been, a tentacle-like appendage stretched across the length of the room, a distance of over twenty feet. It reeled me toward her like a fish on a line. Whatever that
thing was no longer looked human. It melted like an ice statue, with no bones or connective tissue inside, its lips nose and mouth becoming hideously elongated before dripping off in huge globs like melted candlewax. A fire alarm started wailing as the tentacle dragged me through the flames, scorching my arms and legs.
The loose mass of skin reached out and encased me like a mother bird sheltering its eggs.
âWHY WONâT YOU LOVE ME?â all my exâs voices screamed at once. Whichever direction I looked, silhouettes of faces rose and fell, as if trying to burst through. Parts of them dripped inside my mouth, disgustingly warm with a bitter taste worse than Vaseline.
I put everything into clawing my way out if there. What was left of the beast had the consistency of wet clay and came apart just as easily. I tore away chunks until there was a hole large enough to squeeze through. Then, I crawled along surrounded by black smoke.
At the far side of the room I risked a glance back and saw a bumpy, uneven hand reaching out of a puddle of ooze. Soon I was crawling over the bristly welcome mat, then fumbling for the door. All I remember after that are paramedics wrestling me into an ambulanceâŚ
A specialist officer came to see me at the hospital the next morning. Theyâd been unable to contact the homeowner, Gertrude Huyton, and through his line of questioning I could tell they hadnât found her âremainsâ inside the charred house. Like the wicked witch of the West, my stalker had melted. I told the officer she said I could stay the night, and that I probably started the fire by dropping a cigarette.
âIn that case, weâll keep trying to reach her.â He walked to the curtain surronding my bed and paused. âOh, and I almost forgot to mention, her cat is missing.â
âHer...cat?â
âYeah. The little black one. One of the firemen pulled it out of the wreckage. The poor thing had burns over its legs but it ran off before anybody could take it to the vet.â
I swallowed a gulp and thanked him for telling me.
And now Iâm still sitting here listening while nurses rush back and forth,
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2024.05.19 15:37 Thick-Grab-8821 25 [M4F] #Germany - Non Native seeking a connection and fun dates
Iâm sort of caught in the gears of academic life, university is no joke, I tell you (sigh). Alongside my studies, Iâm on personal quest too⌠trying to piece myself together, to heal and grow. Itâs a little like wandering through a maze, gets quite lonely at times but hey, itâs all part of the journey (or so they tell me).
About me:
Iâm a man of contrasts. I have a romantic soul, with a twist.
You might be curious about what exactly I mean. Imagine I'm returning home from a tough day at work, and you're there to let me unload all of that tension, whether by simply getting on your knees and giving a passionate... (readacted but ask if you're curious) ;) Iâm interested in taking c*ntrol, but I also enjoy the idea of cooking you your favorite meal and taking you up as my passenger princess or simply cuddling as we binge our favorite tv show. This represents the fusion between the heartfelt romantic and the masculine side (with a playful streak) that is me.
Interests? Iâve got 'em:
- Philosophical debates over a Hot Beverage
- Deep dives into books (Fiction to Nietzsche, I donât discriminate)
- Stargazing with a side of existential musings
- Finding the best local eats or snacking at nights (Foodie is an understatement)
- Movies, Music, Sports, Videogames, Writing, Reading, Poetry and what not.
- Exploring unspoken languages â like the art of touch
Hereâs what you get:
- A listener, talker, thinker, dreamerâall rolled into one slightly-overanalyzing package.
- No pressure, no rushâjust two souls figuring out how much fun we can have along this wild ride.
- Respect, coziness, and a willingness to share the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of our stories.
I'll stop now, if your heart did that weird little leap while reading this, maybe weâre on the same wavelength.
If youâre down for a bond where we can cheer each other on through lifeâs weirdness.. with the occasional detour into cuddle town, then hit me up. Letâs keep it light, but letâs also make it matter, you know?
We might not have all the answers to lifeâs big questions, but maybe weâll figure out a few together.
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2024.05.19 15:34 Zagaroth [No Need For A Core?] - CH 189: A Tuneful Trio
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GLOSSARY This links to a post on the
free section of my Patreon. Note: "Book 1" is chapters 1-59, "Book 2" is chapters 60-133, "Book 3", is 134-193, "Book 4" is CH 194-(ongoing)
When the three teens got up the next morning, they ate quickly before turning their attention back to the instrument.
With the soundboard ready enough, Derek's next task was to collect the string posts and such from some of the scrapped stringed instruments, but to do no more than clean them up if needed and set them aside for later.
While he was doing that, Shizoku was using one of the better instruments in the shop to make sure that Fuyuko had a solid concept of scales and octaves. During this, the luponi couldn't help but ask "Ya should be able ta hear as well as me, why are ya tryin' ta have me figure this out?"
"Well," the kitsune replied, "there's a few things involved. First, I have paid a lot more attention to my magical senses than my physical ones, so while my ears might be able to physically hear as well as yours, my mind isn't as attuned to working with that information. You have been used to pushing yourself to make the most of every sound." She hesitated a moment before adding, "There's something else involved with that, but I think it's best if someone more experienced teaches you, which Mordecai is probably going to do, so I am not going to even tell you what it's about. I just don't want you to think I hid something from you later."
After Fuyuko gave a slightly confused nod, Shizoku continued. "I am also giving you just enough information for you to get certain key concepts down. Once I do that, we can hunt for a fresh set of notes without the bias of the rest of my training. You'll understand when we are done."
Once she was satisfied with the taller girl's understanding, Shizoku began the next stage of the process. "Okay, now this instrument over here has some adjustable positioning with its tuning knobs, and we have some other pieces that were also still being prototyped. Fuyuko, what I want you to do is find a new note. We have a bunch of strings of different types, so you can play with it with different sounds. So you hunt down a note that you like, no, love. Deep or high or somewhere in between, it doesn't matter. Once we have a single note to work with, we can scale up or down as needed to get the matching ones, the only limitation is that it has to be a note Derek can hear. The notes I showed you are the notes I know, but technically a scale can be based on the harmonies of any frequency. Since you don't know all the systems that already exist, and you have really good hearing, you should be able to pick out a clean frequency to start with."
After Fuyuko got a hang of tuning strings, Shizoku had Derek follow her out of the workroom. "I don't want to disturb her concentration, and I don't want our reactions to influence her. I'm sure she's heard plenty of music before, but I doubt she's heard as much well-performed music as you have, so she won't know what sounds are supposedly wrong."
While Fuyuko was occupied, the pair explored the witch's island more, poking their noses into any unlocked buildings other than the main house. Some of them were storage, and some were other types of workshops. Shizoku wasn't certain if the wreck of an alchemy lab was the result of visitors or of Carmilla's own experiments, and decided it was best to not ask. But there were a lot of notes and a few books, so she decided to start browsing them and copying any new information she found. She also wrote on a couple of them to correct anything she saw that was clearly wrong.
Once the fox girl got distracted by her studies, Derek decided to practice channeling his elemental abilities more. The swamp was a fascinating mix of different types of elements and different ways elements could be seen. The concept of 'mud' was complicated enough that he was beginning to see it as its own thing, distinct from earth and water.
And then there was the way in which 'air' could be trapped in the muck, and even the more liquid stuff could prove difficult for air bubbles to escape readily. None of that was good quality air, at least, not if you needed to breathe, but it was air. Sort of.
He walked along the wooden walkways that wound around the island, probing as far as he could with his senses. Holding on to this state was tiring, but it was easier to keep doing this exercise when there was something new and interesting to puzzle out. He wasn't trying to manipulate or adjust anything right now, that seemed like a bad idea to mess with Carmilla's island, but there was enough here that was simply different from what he'd seen before to keep him occupied for a while.
So when Fuyuko had found the note she wanted to work with, she had to spend more time fetching her friends before they could continue. "So, as I was playin' with the notes, I kinda remembered some old songs my ma used ta sing ta me. They didn't sound the same as the songs people liked, and they ain't in common, so I ain't sung them in a long time, but I tried ta remember them as best I can, and then I figured out some strings that sounded like I remembered. I think these can work as part of a scale."
Shizoku was satisfied with the results. "It's not on any of the scales I know. Very good Fuyuko. Um, and maybe when we are done here, we can hear those songs. Now for the hard part. We have to find the harmonies. More specifically, we have to find the harmonies and how to create them with the available strings. This is going to be a lot of work, and most of it is still going to be based on Fuyuko's hearing, so our part is to make sure she has as many available strings and ways of adjusting them as possible."
It took several days in fact, including marking sections on the strings that could be used to change to a different harmonic note. Part of this was to create a lot of options, which they were going to need. Shizoku took a lot of notes during this, and Derek eventually had to go back to town to barter for some more strings. They had a lot more than they were going to use in the final product, but there were so many more possible notes than Derek had realized. And the tiny fox organizing their efforts was being perfectionist about having every possible option available. She'd also added "precise distance measuring tools" to his shopping list.
In the end, Derek had what she wanted, but he was pretty certain that he'd overpaid in at least one barter. At least he'd been able to get some more food supplies. The meals Udup got for them were fine, but a little repetitive and boring, so it was nice to get a change of pace. He also made sure to collect the items they had been storing in their room so that they didn't have to lug them around the swamp, as they had a place to stay on the witch's island.
And during all this Bip was amusing itself by learning to vibrate in tune with the various notes, and even showed off by making waves on its surface that matched the sound. Shizoku looked a little confused when she passed on what her familiar said, but to Derek that felt like an insight he needed to work on with his air attunement.
When their taskmistress was satisfied with their options, it was time to create the layout for their instrument. "We need a piece of wood the same size and shape as our instrument. We're going to figure out the best string order for what we want. This is going to involve a lot of moving things around, so we want to do the work here, and then copy that to the actual instrument when we are done."
This part went a lot faster but it still took most of a day to design their layout, and the next morning was used for their final assembly.
The instrument had a total of twenty-six strings, two octaves of thirteen notes each, with more notes available based on which of the raised ridges one pressed down on while plucking the string. Even with the tools that Derek had bought, measuring with enough precision was hard, but thankfully the tuning posts were all made to be used in experimental instruments so were easy to adjust.
After they had lunch, they got Carmilla to examine their work. "Huh," she murmured as she plucked each string, "yeah, that is a new sound. And this thing is cool, I need to find a name for it. Alright, you guys pass this stage, and with flying colors." She giggled, "Miss Kazoo says you did that the way hard way. It was thorough, but you should have been able to do it with about a third the work or less."
Shizoku scowled and said, "Well, she may have had a lot of music training, but I have had only so much, so I wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything." And then she blinked, "Wait, 'Kazoo'?"
Carmilla coughed. "Oops. I'm getting a scolding now from Mordecai. Um, maybe don't use that? Anyway, you guys did a great job and put a lot of creative and physical effort into this. That adds up, you know? So with this and all the other stuff you guys did before coming here, I only get to ask you for one more task. I want you to put on a performance for me. And I want it to include that instrument. You can practice with this one, Kazue will make a copy that is a bit more stable for the performance and for me to keep."
That elicited groans from the entire group, but Shizoku rebounded quickly. "Wait, I have an idea. Um, I think we need a couple of days of practice, and we need a drum as well."
The plan was pretty straightforward. Fuyuko was going to sing the songs she could remember, and teach them to Shizoku and Derek while also doing her best to play the notes on their new instrument. She wasn't really going to be very proficient at it in only a couple of days, but they were able to work out the simplest arrangement that would go with her songs.
Derek's job was to maintain a steady beat on the drum and sing along with the chorus of the song. Not knowing the language that Fuyuko was singing in made this part harder.
Shizoku's job was to adjust one of the dances she knew to the timing of Fuyuko's song. She even dug into one of her expanded space bags to bring out a very fancy looking kimono and a pair of fans that could be used to create a sharp snapping sound, which could be used to contrast the low sound of the drum that Derek was playing.
The resulting performance was far from professional. Fuyuko only had a small pattern of notes she could reliably reproduce while singing, and they were somewhat spread out as she couldn't play fast at all. Shizoku's fan dance also didn't really match the feel of the song despite the adjustments she tried to make, and Derek's reproduction of the chorus was far from perfect.
But they put sincere effort into it, and Carmilla was satisfied. "Oh, that will be a great start, and I think I am going to like playing this. Thank you, I think you three have put more real effort into this than most of the adults have. Oh, they have a special gift for you Fuyuko, they say you should have it now." A small book appeared in her hands, which she handed over to Fuyuko. "Part of the dungeon magic means they learned that language when you sang it. This is a copy of every song you sang and a translation. The writing for the original is sounded out using the common alphabet, they don't have a writing sample to learn the original script from. Um, they also think you should wait to read it until you guys are settled in for the night. I'll let you three through the swamp tomorrow, and you can collect your big prizes when you get to the end."
The reason for waiting became clear to Fuyuko when she did start reading later that night, and she began crying. "I remembered the words and the sounds, but it's been so long that I didn't really remember the meaning. They were lullabies. They were my clan's lullabies."
Shizoku and Derek did their best to comfort their friend, but her tears were both of pain and of joy. She was very happy to have this small bit of her past restored to her, even if the translations showed she'd forgotten a verse or two. She was going to do her best to remember them all and make sure they were written down.
She was much calmer by morning, and the three collected themselves and set off to make their way to the briar wall that blocked off the exit to the level. The passage through went fine, but the corridor after was not the straight path Fuyuko had expected. It was blocked off, and there was a single stair way splitting off from the corridor. "Um, guys. That's supposed ta be the way we go, it goes ta a big room ta watch the arena from. That's, um, one of the stairs down to the arena."
They didn't know what to make of this and made their way down very cautiously.
Mordecai was waiting for them, along with several bunkins and kobolds. "So, who is up for an optional bonus challenge?" He asked them with a grin.
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2024.05.19 15:31 xfallenangelx95 28/F Seeking a friendship with people who know what they want! People who talk a lot, need someone to talk to on a daily basis and really want to make new friends đ¸ I don't need shallow conversations. I want to talk to friendless and understanding people who are emotionally mature.
(Only Europe, Please) - short note - If you're not into reading or receiving long messages,don't read any further + Please If you don't want to read everything because of my post being too long for you & instead of reading It all - ..skip some parts - find another person to talk to.Let's respect each other and our free time. All people criticizing/making fun of me & other people - will be blocked.Pretty much as people questioning my post and giving me unsolicited advice.I'm not here for any conflicts and I know I can't please everyone - I know I never will.. However It's me who should feel comfortable in my new potential friendship & obviously someone who wants to be my friend - not the whole world.. which is why I don't need any advice from people who don't even want to be a part of my life. The amount of rude people on Reddit always criticizing others and making fun of them is unbelievably high but let me tell you something - NEVER let anyone make choices for you and criticize you only because you're different! Always fight for your dreams and never let anyone make you think you're worthless! It's your life and you're the one deciding what's best for you - If you want to judge me despite not even wanting to talk to me or give me advice better block me! I'm an adult woman and I make all decisions on my own.I'm not trying to "fit in" and be like everyone else - just to get more attention.Accept me for who I am or let go - is my motto.
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Hello guys! đ (read everything before you decide to send me a message) Please send me a message ONLY If you're in the same situation and If your expectations are the same as mine.I want to find like minded people from Europe (Why Europe? Read my post to find out) I'm looking for something permanent (remember - you can feel lonely even If you're surrounded by others - If there's no emotional bond) I'm fed up of meeting people who never make time for me & only text me once or twice a week to ask me "what are you up to?" Out of boredom.I don't want to meet people asking others a million of questions like "what's your favorite movie?" Just to give them one word answer and ask them another question "and music? Your favorite song?" I'm looking for something "deeper" & different đ
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What kind of friend would I like to find? Someone to talk to on a daily basis - Someone who needs It & wants It just as much as me
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What are my expectations? I would like to meet someone in a similar situation â why? Because I honestly feel like only a person with the same expectations and a similar outlook on life would get along with me & because I feel more comfortable talking to people like me..Friendless people who need a strong bond - people without friends and partners.. Don't get me wrongâŚMost people deserve to be happy and It's good to have friends but people who have friends or families in real life are usually more focused on them (which is completely understandable) & have less time for others + I simply don't want to be replaced by anyone..I kind of envy people who can call others , true friends given I don't have an emotional bond with any of my acquaintances. Please send me a message only If you're not In a relationship and don't have friends for the same reasons I've already mentioned before
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Whenever I hear that others have friends I simply get sad because (believe it or not) If I had to choose between 20 people to talk to (acquaintances) and one special person - I'd choose that one special person without any hesitation .
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I also want to talk to others every day because..I want to see someoneâs effort & be someone's first choice - not another person to have random conversations with..some people ask me "Why do you want to talk to people from Europe?" Well..Because I would like to see someone I'd get along with - In the far future - face to face :) + I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to receive a message - waiting 6 hours to receive a message is more than enough
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I'm by no means criticizing people who don't want to talk to others often / People who really are super busy & People who want to find someone to have unimportant conversations with - I'm aware that not everyone has the same expectations which is why everything you're reading now - is here for a reason :) All I'm suggesting is - I don't want anything temporary and I don't want to be the one always giving more than receiving.Listen people - I used to ignore being..ignored by others..always being just an option to talk to during tough times or moments of boredom.I was too young to realize that I was never important enough for most people that were a part of my life. I don't know who needs to hear this but..No one is too busy to make time for you! People make excuses to avoid others because they prioritize everything and (maybe) everyone..over them. It's true that most people are busy - but It takes only a few seconds to start a conversation (If you're into short messages) and a few minutes (1-10/15) to type a long message . Don't let anyone lie to you.
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Truth is that most people either don't like you enough to make time for you or just simply - feel no need to talk to others often but are they too busy? No..You don't need to send me a message just to ask me and tell me "Do you really want to talk every day? I like long messages but I can't promise to contact you often" If you really are unsure please don't send me a message.I don't need more acquaintances aka people to talk to - occasionally.
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I'm not trying to sound rude but conversations once or twice a week wouldn't be enough for me and I don't need them... Let me tell you one thing â A true friend would never just give up on you for no reason :) Itâs always possible to find someone to have a random conversation with â someone willing to send you one message once or twice a week..but..Itâs almost impossible to find people willing to make more time for you.
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Iâm not asking a busy person to make time for me by changing some plans! Absolutely not! Iâm here to find someone who wants to talk daily (throughout the day or maybe even night) of oneâs own will.Someone looking for the same kind of connection.Strong friendships are based on mutual support. One of the best things you can do for a friend in need, is just to be there for them when they want to talk.I often see posts from people who always say how friendless they are because they don't feel loved or appreciated by their "friends" remember! A true friend - someone who truly likes you or someone who wants to get to know you - will always find time for you.
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I'm not interested in small talk/short messages - I love long and meaningful conversations. It's so easy to find someone who loves abbreviations and questions like "How are you?" How was your day? Or what are you interested in? But so hard/almost impossible to find a person who knows how to keep a conversation going & show others some effort.Building and maintaining friendships takes time and effort.Never allow pursuits or possessions to become bigger priorities than your relations with other people.Close friendships are so important to us because they are so difficult to form + Having friends can help you feel as if you belong to something that brings purpose and connection to your life
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⢠I do NOT respond to any âHey,hmuâ or âu want to talk?â type of messages (super short messages or messages full of abbreviations â I literally canât stand abbreviations and acronyms in text messages) ALL messages full of abbreviations will immediately be ignored.I also don't like it when people ignore everything I say in private messages just to focus on a random question or? When they start talking only about themselves and don't ever ask me anything. I love conversations with people referring to everything I say...I want everything I say and do - to be reciprocated
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⢠No NSFW profiles (checking mental health subreddits NOT included as I'm a huge empath and always try to understand others) - Please! I'm not looking for anyone to flirt with and I'm not looking for a partner either. I always check people's profiles (even comment history) - To avoid guys, trying to get inappropriate pictures from adult women or? flirt with them + I don't want to see you with no clothes on so If you're on Reddit only because you want others to see what's underneath your clothes - I'm not for you! I just simply don't want to see any s e x related activity on your profile If you want to talk to me.
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⢠If both of us (you and I) are from the same country (I live in a non-English speaking country) - I want to communicate with you in our first language! No - Not because I don't understand English - because as you see - I do. Why then? English is simply overrated and people don't appreciate other languages as much as they should. So.. If we're from the same country and you want to talk only in English (which is quite common on reddit) - Talk to someone else. I just don't want to talk to a person from the same country as mine - in a foreign language as It's just something I don't understand even If all you want is to improve your language skills
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⢠Please only adult people 18-36 (age range) It doesn't matter to me If you're younger or older than me (as long as you're not underage) So.. don't worry! I just want to have discussions with emotionally mature people :)
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⢠I donât respond to messages I donât find interesting even If they're long - If after receiving and reading your message I don't feel comfortable or think "I wouldn't get along with him/her" I simply do not respond (what Iâm suggesting is that I donât always respond to someoneâs first or second message because..sometimes you just know If youâd get along with someone or not- Iâd never ignore anyone after days or weeks of daily conversations though) just because I donât want to do anything forcefully & because I donât want to lead anyone on. I read all messages but I definitely don't respond to all of them! I want to make it clear because I don't want to be accused of not responding and not reading people's messages! - Some people don't message me back as well and even If It's a bit disappointing I'm ok with that! - as long as there's no emotional bond - Not responding to someone's first or second message Is completely OK! If people think they wouldn't get along with a stranger - is there a reason to start a conversation? I don't think so. I can't stand being ignored after days or weeks of daily conversations and seeing people changing priorities over time.. but that's something different - something I don't want to go through ever again for real. If I'm really interested in someone's message it's impossible to hear from me "I'm too busy" because I know myself and If I had no time for others - I wouldn't be here. I don't want to pretend someone I'm not and always try to find some cheap excuses to avoid others. (unlike most people who don't want to talk to others)
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⢠Donât ask me âCan you tell me something about yourself?â If you really want to get to know me - you can ask me questions :) I'm an open book.
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⢠It would be better If you guys were into emojis - like me - to describe your emotions In text messages. Two emojis - đ and đ are completely enough! I just don't like emotionless conversations.I also don't like it when people say "yeah" or yea"as it sounds dismissively. First impression Is everything to me! I want to see your kindness even in a text message - Emojis are very helpful to express your emotions.I don't want to meet people who say "crying Is a weakness" - It's OK to cry even If you're a guy!
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⢠I want to talk on reddit first (just to make sure If I'd get along with you) before moving to Discord or some other app
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⢠I would rather talk to a homebody - not another person who always has something to do as people who are very busy don't even have time for daily conversations
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⢠If you're another person interested only in "childish conversations" such as "HEYOOO! I'M BORED! Ya like Pizza or cheese? xDDDD đ¤Ł" I'm begging you! Don't send me a message.I'm not a child anymore and such messages don't make me smile or laugh.I'm looking for someone interested In serious discussions - not another person just seeking some entertainment out of boredom . Conversations with sarcastic undertones (even when It comes to some emojis such as đ¤Łđ) are not for me. Your typing style matters to me! Why? when It comes to online conversations with someone new - It's not always possible to know If someone Is laughing at you.. or with you. Let me tell you something else! Jokes about cancer, disabilities and death are UNACCEPTABLE to me. If you find joy In someone else's misfortune you are not a person I want to know.
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⢠Time response matters to me a lot! I would never ask anyone to be online all day long and I'm NOT asking any of you for any instant messaging as I'm someone who would rather wait an hour or two to receive a proper response instead of some short and pointless messages but I'm interested only in daily conversations and I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to get a message from you.I don't need unbelievably long messages either! Messages as long as the second paragraph of my post - are completely enough. If you like longer messages? you can send me a longer message, but If you want to send me one word or one sentence as a response to my post - don't expect a reaction from me. I don't want to come across as rude - I just don't want to waste your time
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⢠I'm strongly AGAINST picking on people you don't even want to chat with - and making fun of them! I can't stand people who criticize others publicly or make fun of them! (only because they disagree with someone they don't even know) There's no place In my life for someone using Reddit, to hurt other people
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⢠I'm not into foul language and I definitely don't want to talk to people who swear a lot...
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⢠I want to meet assertive people who know what they want and always stand up for their friends
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⢠I want to meet someone willing to call me In the future, someone spontaneously sending me pictures of animals or food, et cetera. I want more than just text conversations.. đť
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Why canât you see any of my hobbies listed down below? Because what really matters to me is..who you are (If youâre honest, talkative ,understanding, caring and trustworthy â for example) just simply â It matters to me what youâre like! not what you like.Donât get me wrong â you can tell me what your hobbies are but from my point of view - people's hobbies are important - If you want to find a gaming buddy or If you want to meet someone to hang out with in real life and..go bowling for example.What most people seem to care about are other people's passions â I donât. I get along with other people despite having completely different hobbies but I absolutely donât get along with people way different than me (different expectations and outlook on life â way different sense of humor or personality traits â Itâs just an example) It doesn't make ANY DIFFERENCE to me If you're a gamer or? Someone interested in photography! It doesn't make any difference - > as long as you're talkative and kind and If you also want to find someone willing to stay in your life..for good - But If you're into small talk and all you want is to...type and receive super short messages or If you're here only because you're bored and don't know what to do + If you're a very sarcastic person - I'm definitely not for you! I don't get along with overly sarcastic people turning everything into a joke. Friendships should be natural â not forced. I wouldn't get along with people who laugh at everything.. In my opinion most people are way too sarcastic.. It's quite sad... Sarcasm can also be another form of passive-aggressive behavior.
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People who want to be to friends should feel comfortable and have something in common. No - not necessarily a similar taste in music or movies but something else..Most friendships don't fizzle out because of people not having the same hobbies but..because they just simply have different expectations when It comes to something important.I'm not here out of boredom and trust me - I'm not here to meet as many people as possible.I choose quality over quantity.I highly value myself and my time & Sometimes one person but a person who makes you feel comfortable and understood - is more than enough :) We ALL can choose what kind of people weâd like to talk to and maybe even become really good friends with and I? I donât want anyone to be disappointed.We all have some expectations after all.I know that people don't have to talk as often as possible in order to become friends but I'm interested only in daily conversations. If you really need someone to talk to due to loneliness and If you have time to talk to me daily (throughout the day and maybe even night) I always make time for others.I'm literally always available.I could even stay up all night long only to talk to someone important to me. Iâm ready to commit but only If thereâs some chemistry between me and someone else.I donât do anything forcefully.
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If you want to talk to me tell me your story - tell me why you're here, what kind of friend would you like to meet :) Et cetera.Such messages are way more interesting to me than...someone's long list of hobbies. I know! It's unusual on reddit but I don't make friends based on hobbies..I want to meet someone with the same mindset as mine to finally feel understood and get close to someone new. You can share your problems with me - I absolutely don't mind "complaining" as I've been through a lot in my life.What do people usually tell you when you tell them that something's wrong? "Don't complain" or "Life's not over yet - one day you'll be happy" or "There are worse situations than yours" and..obviously "Find a therapist" Life's not a fairytale and sometimes things don't go as planned.Emotions shouldn't be bottled up.I'm sick of people always telling others "everything's gonna be ok" move on " & more..Trust me people - not everyone wants to hear "Just believe in yourself and everything's gonna be ok" Some people take it as reassurance - but others? They would rather hear something different đImagine being told that things will be okay, only for them to get worse..Do you guys know why telling someone "everything's gonna be ok" Is wrong? Because you can't see the future.
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You can't guarantee others that one day they'll finally be happy + when It comes to social interactions - We're responsible only for ourselves - not others & as you guys know people let us down quite often (sometimes even when there's no reason) so instead of telling people how they should move on, forget everything and be happy or asking them to find a therapist - be there for them! Always be willing to listen to them If you really like them or want to get to know them & don't suggest everyone in a tough situation to find a therapist because even the best therapist won't ever replace a true friend + It's quite normal to be disappointed If people always do something to hurt you. Sharing your hardships with other people in a very similar situation or exactly the same one - is VERY helpful If the other person understands you & wants to start all over by just letting it all out! Feeling emotional support instead of always hearing some "positive quotes" or someone saying "Stop complaining let's talk about something else - Is very important! "Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on. I appreciate sensitive people who always try to understand others. If after hearing a sad story all you want to say is "forget the past and move on" you're not for me. It's important to be a good listener and provide emotional support to others
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Please - If you're a completely different person than the described type of person I'm looking for (If you love abbreviations,If you don't need a stable friendship, If you're sarcastic and quiet) or If you simply disagree with my post - don't force yourself to send me a message.I want my new potential friendship to be natural which is why I want you to contact me only If your needs are the same - I don't want you to pretend someone you're not - only to please me - Pretending to be someone you're not - is the worst.I want to finally be happy again & find someone "always" wanting to talk - sending me random pictures throughout the day - food pictures or pictures of some animals. What is the most important to me? I want to find people who value online friendships as much as they would value real life ones as there's another human being on the other side
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No comments please.Only Private messages and chat requests đş
I know It's possible to meet people with exactly the same expectations as mine but It's just not easy because most people are Interested In temporary and entertaining conversations. People like me are just "different" I really want to finally find someone who loves emojis as much as I do.. someone who loves sweet, warm and serious discussions at the same time. Emojis really do - change conversations đ
submitted by
xfallenangelx95 to
friendship [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 15:27 xfallenangelx95 28/F [L] [O] Seeking emotional support and highly empathetic people.I would love to find someone who doesn't judge others or make fun of them.It's very Important to have someone to rely on :) I'm here for conversations with emotionally mature people who don't have friends and need someone to talk to
(Only Europe, Please) - short note - If you're not into reading or receiving long messages,don't read any further + Please If you don't want to read everything because of my post being too long for you & instead of reading It all - ..skip some parts - find another person to talk to.Let's respect each other and our free time. All people criticizing/making fun of me & other people - will be blocked.Pretty much as people questioning my post and giving me unsolicited advice.I'm not here for any conflicts and I know I can't please everyone - I know I never will.. However It's me who should feel comfortable in my new potential friendship & obviously someone who wants to be my friend - not the whole world.. which is why I don't need any advice from people who don't even want to be a part of my life. The amount of rude people on Reddit always criticizing others and making fun of them is unbelievably high but let me tell you something - NEVER let anyone make choices for you and criticize you only because you're different! Always fight for your dreams and never let anyone make you think you're worthless! It's your life and you're the one deciding what's best for you - If you want to judge me despite not even wanting to talk to me or give me advice better block me! I'm an adult woman and I make all decisions on my own.I'm not trying to "fit in" and be like everyone else - just to get more attention.Accept me for who I am or let go - is my motto.
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Hello guys! đ (read everything before you decide to send me a message) Please send me a message ONLY If you're in the same situation and If your expectations are the same as mine.I want to find like minded people from Europe (Why Europe? Read my post to find out) I'm looking for something permanent (remember - you can feel lonely even If you're surrounded by others - If there's no emotional bond) I'm fed up of meeting people who never make time for me & only text me once or twice a week to ask me "what are you up to?" Out of boredom.I don't want to meet people asking others a million of questions like "what's your favorite movie?" Just to give them one word answer and ask them another question "and music? Your favorite song?" I'm looking for something "deeper" & different đ
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What kind of friend would I like to find? Someone to talk to on a daily basis - Someone who needs It & wants It just as much as me
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What are my expectations? I would like to meet someone in a similar situation â why? Because I honestly feel like only a person with the same expectations and a similar outlook on life would get along with me & because I feel more comfortable talking to people like me..Friendless people who need a strong bond - people without friends and partners.. Don't get me wrongâŚMost people deserve to be happy and It's good to have friends but people who have friends or families in real life are usually more focused on them (which is completely understandable) & have less time for others + I simply don't want to be replaced by anyone..I kind of envy people who can call others , true friends given I don't have an emotional bond with any of my acquaintances. Please send me a message only If you're not In a relationship and don't have friends for the same reasons I've already mentioned before
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Whenever I hear that others have friends I simply get sad because (believe it or not) If I had to choose between 20 people to talk to (acquaintances) and one special person - I'd choose that one special person without any hesitation .
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I also want to talk to others every day because..I want to see someoneâs effort & be someone's first choice - not another person to have random conversations with..some people ask me "Why do you want to talk to people from Europe?" Well..Because I would like to see someone I'd get along with - In the far future - face to face :) + I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to receive a message - waiting 6 hours to receive a message is more than enough
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I'm by no means criticizing people who don't want to talk to others often / People who really are super busy & People who want to find someone to have unimportant conversations with - I'm aware that not everyone has the same expectations which is why everything you're reading now - is here for a reason :) All I'm suggesting is - I don't want anything temporary and I don't want to be the one always giving more than receiving.Listen people - I used to ignore being..ignored by others..always being just an option to talk to during tough times or moments of boredom.I was too young to realize that I was never important enough for most people that were a part of my life. I don't know who needs to hear this but..No one is too busy to make time for you! People make excuses to avoid others because they prioritize everything and (maybe) everyone..over them. It's true that most people are busy - but It takes only a few seconds to start a conversation (If you're into short messages) and a few minutes (1-10/15) to type a long message . Don't let anyone lie to you.
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Truth is that most people either don't like you enough to make time for you or just simply - feel no need to talk to others often but are they too busy? No..You don't need to send me a message just to ask me and tell me "Do you really want to talk every day? I like long messages but I can't promise to contact you often" If you really are unsure please don't send me a message.I don't need more acquaintances aka people to talk to - occasionally.
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I'm not trying to sound rude but conversations once or twice a week wouldn't be enough for me and I don't need them... Let me tell you one thing â A true friend would never just give up on you for no reason :) Itâs always possible to find someone to have a random conversation with â someone willing to send you one message once or twice a week..but..Itâs almost impossible to find people willing to make more time for you.
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Iâm not asking a busy person to make time for me by changing some plans! Absolutely not! Iâm here to find someone who wants to talk daily (throughout the day or maybe even night) of oneâs own will.Someone looking for the same kind of connection.Strong friendships are based on mutual support. One of the best things you can do for a friend in need, is just to be there for them when they want to talk.I often see posts from people who always say how friendless they are because they don't feel loved or appreciated by their "friends" remember! A true friend - someone who truly likes you or someone who wants to get to know you - will always find time for you.
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I'm not interested in small talk/short messages - I love long and meaningful conversations. It's so easy to find someone who loves abbreviations and questions like "How are you?" How was your day? Or what are you interested in? But so hard/almost impossible to find a person who knows how to keep a conversation going & show others some effort.Building and maintaining friendships takes time and effort.Never allow pursuits or possessions to become bigger priorities than your relations with other people.Close friendships are so important to us because they are so difficult to form + Having friends can help you feel as if you belong to something that brings purpose and connection to your life
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⢠I do NOT respond to any âHey,hmuâ or âu want to talk?â type of messages (super short messages or messages full of abbreviations â I literally canât stand abbreviations and acronyms in text messages) ALL messages full of abbreviations will immediately be ignored.I also don't like it when people ignore everything I say in private messages just to focus on a random question or? When they start talking only about themselves and don't ever ask me anything. I love conversations with people referring to everything I say...I want everything I say and do - to be reciprocated
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⢠No NSFW profiles (checking mental health subreddits NOT included as I'm a huge empath and always try to understand others) - Please! I'm not looking for anyone to flirt with and I'm not looking for a partner either. I always check people's profiles (even comment history) - To avoid guys, trying to get inappropriate pictures from adult women or? flirt with them + I don't want to see you with no clothes on so If you're on Reddit only because you want others to see what's underneath your clothes - I'm not for you! I just simply don't want to see any s e x related activity on your profile If you want to talk to me.
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⢠If both of us (you and I) are from the same country (I live in a non-English speaking country) - I want to communicate with you in our first language! No - Not because I don't understand English - because as you see - I do. Why then? English is simply overrated and people don't appreciate other languages as much as they should. So.. If we're from the same country and you want to talk only in English (which is quite common on reddit) - Talk to someone else. I just don't want to talk to a person from the same country as mine - in a foreign language as It's just something I don't understand even If all you want is to improve your language skills
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⢠Please only adult people 18-36 (age range) It doesn't matter to me If you're younger or older than me (as long as you're not underage) So.. don't worry! I just want to have discussions with emotionally mature people :)
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⢠I donât respond to messages I donât find interesting even If they're long - If after receiving and reading your message I don't feel comfortable or think "I wouldn't get along with him/her" I simply do not respond (what Iâm suggesting is that I donât always respond to someoneâs first or second message because..sometimes you just know If youâd get along with someone or not- Iâd never ignore anyone after days or weeks of daily conversations though) just because I donât want to do anything forcefully & because I donât want to lead anyone on. I read all messages but I definitely don't respond to all of them! I want to make it clear because I don't want to be accused of not responding and not reading people's messages! - Some people don't message me back as well and even If It's a bit disappointing I'm ok with that! - as long as there's no emotional bond - Not responding to someone's first or second message Is completely OK! If people think they wouldn't get along with a stranger - is there a reason to start a conversation? I don't think so. I can't stand being ignored after days or weeks of daily conversations and seeing people changing priorities over time.. but that's something different - something I don't want to go through ever again for real. If I'm really interested in someone's message it's impossible to hear from me "I'm too busy" because I know myself and If I had no time for others - I wouldn't be here. I don't want to pretend someone I'm not and always try to find some cheap excuses to avoid others. (unlike most people who don't want to talk to others)
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⢠Donât ask me âCan you tell me something about yourself?â If you really want to get to know me - you can ask me questions :) I'm an open book.
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⢠It would be better If you guys were into emojis - like me - to describe your emotions In text messages. Two emojis - đ and đ are completely enough! I just don't like emotionless conversations.I also don't like it when people say "yeah" or yea"as it sounds dismissively. First impression Is everything to me! I want to see your kindness even in a text message - Emojis are very helpful to express your emotions.I don't want to meet people who say "crying Is a weakness" - It's OK to cry even If you're a guy!
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⢠I want to talk on reddit first (just to make sure If I'd get along with you) before moving to Discord or some other app
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⢠I would rather talk to a homebody - not another person who always has something to do as people who are very busy don't even have time for daily conversations
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⢠If you're another person interested only in "childish conversations" such as "HEYOOO! I'M BORED! Ya like Pizza or cheese? xDDDD đ¤Ł" I'm begging you! Don't send me a message.I'm not a child anymore and such messages don't make me smile or laugh.I'm looking for someone interested In serious discussions - not another person just seeking some entertainment out of boredom . Conversations with sarcastic undertones (even when It comes to some emojis such as đ¤Łđ) are not for me. Your typing style matters to me! Why? when It comes to online conversations with someone new - It's not always possible to know If someone Is laughing at you.. or with you. Let me tell you something else! Jokes about cancer, disabilities and death are UNACCEPTABLE to me. If you find joy In someone else's misfortune you are not a person I want to know.
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⢠Time response matters to me a lot! I would never ask anyone to be online all day long and I'm NOT asking any of you for any instant messaging as I'm someone who would rather wait an hour or two to receive a proper response instead of some short and pointless messages but I'm interested only in daily conversations and I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to get a message from you.I don't need unbelievably long messages either! Messages as long as the second paragraph of my post - are completely enough. If you like longer messages? you can send me a longer message, but If you want to send me one word or one sentence as a response to my post - don't expect a reaction from me. I don't want to come across as rude - I just don't want to waste your time
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⢠I'm strongly AGAINST picking on people you don't even want to chat with - and making fun of them! I can't stand people who criticize others publicly or make fun of them! (only because they disagree with someone they don't even know) There's no place In my life for someone using Reddit, to hurt other people
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⢠I'm not into foul language and I definitely don't want to talk to people who swear a lot...
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⢠I want to meet assertive people who know what they want and always stand up for their friends
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⢠I want to meet someone willing to call me In the future, someone spontaneously sending me pictures of animals or food, et cetera. I want more than just text conversations.. đť
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Why canât you see any of my hobbies listed down below? Because what really matters to me is..who you are (If youâre honest, talkative ,understanding, caring and trustworthy â for example) just simply â It matters to me what youâre like! not what you like.Donât get me wrong â you can tell me what your hobbies are but from my point of view - people's hobbies are important - If you want to find a gaming buddy or If you want to meet someone to hang out with in real life and..go bowling for example.What most people seem to care about are other people's passions â I donât. I get along with other people despite having completely different hobbies but I absolutely donât get along with people way different than me (different expectations and outlook on life â way different sense of humor or personality traits â Itâs just an example) It doesn't make ANY DIFFERENCE to me If you're a gamer or? Someone interested in photography! It doesn't make any difference - > as long as you're talkative and kind and If you also want to find someone willing to stay in your life..for good - But If you're into small talk and all you want is to...type and receive super short messages or If you're here only because you're bored and don't know what to do + If you're a very sarcastic person - I'm definitely not for you! I don't get along with overly sarcastic people turning everything into a joke. Friendships should be natural â not forced. I wouldn't get along with people who laugh at everything.. In my opinion most people are way too sarcastic.. It's quite sad... Sarcasm can also be another form of passive-aggressive behavior.
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People who want to be to friends should feel comfortable and have something in common. No - not necessarily a similar taste in music or movies but something else..Most friendships don't fizzle out because of people not having the same hobbies but..because they just simply have different expectations when It comes to something important.I'm not here out of boredom and trust me - I'm not here to meet as many people as possible.I choose quality over quantity.I highly value myself and my time & Sometimes one person but a person who makes you feel comfortable and understood - is more than enough :) We ALL can choose what kind of people weâd like to talk to and maybe even become really good friends with and I? I donât want anyone to be disappointed.We all have some expectations after all.I know that people don't have to talk as often as possible in order to become friends but I'm interested only in daily conversations. If you really need someone to talk to due to loneliness and If you have time to talk to me daily (throughout the day and maybe even night) I always make time for others.I'm literally always available.I could even stay up all night long only to talk to someone important to me. Iâm ready to commit but only If thereâs some chemistry between me and someone else.I donât do anything forcefully.
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If you want to talk to me tell me your story - tell me why you're here, what kind of friend would you like to meet :) Et cetera.Such messages are way more interesting to me than...someone's long list of hobbies. I know! It's unusual on reddit but I don't make friends based on hobbies..I want to meet someone with the same mindset as mine to finally feel understood and get close to someone new. You can share your problems with me - I absolutely don't mind "complaining" as I've been through a lot in my life.What do people usually tell you when you tell them that something's wrong? "Don't complain" or "Life's not over yet - one day you'll be happy" or "There are worse situations than yours" and..obviously "Find a therapist" Life's not a fairytale and sometimes things don't go as planned.Emotions shouldn't be bottled up.I'm sick of people always telling others "everything's gonna be ok" move on " & more..Trust me people - not everyone wants to hear "Just believe in yourself and everything's gonna be ok" Some people take it as reassurance - but others? They would rather hear something different đImagine being told that things will be okay, only for them to get worse..Do you guys know why telling someone "everything's gonna be ok" Is wrong? Because you can't see the future.
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You can't guarantee others that one day they'll finally be happy + when It comes to social interactions - We're responsible only for ourselves - not others & as you guys know people let us down quite often (sometimes even when there's no reason) so instead of telling people how they should move on, forget everything and be happy or asking them to find a therapist - be there for them! Always be willing to listen to them If you really like them or want to get to know them & don't suggest everyone in a tough situation to find a therapist because even the best therapist won't ever replace a true friend + It's quite normal to be disappointed If people always do something to hurt you. Sharing your hardships with other people in a very similar situation or exactly the same one - is VERY helpful If the other person understands you & wants to start all over by just letting it all out! Feeling emotional support instead of always hearing some "positive quotes" or someone saying "Stop complaining let's talk about something else - Is very important! "Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on. I appreciate sensitive people who always try to understand others. If after hearing a sad story all you want to say is "forget the past and move on" you're not for me. It's important to be a good listener and provide emotional support to others
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Please - If you're a completely different person than the described type of person I'm looking for (If you love abbreviations,If you don't need a stable friendship, If you're sarcastic and quiet) or If you simply disagree with my post - don't force yourself to send me a message.I want my new potential friendship to be natural which is why I want you to contact me only If your needs are the same - I don't want you to pretend someone you're not - only to please me - Pretending to be someone you're not - is the worst.I want to finally be happy again & find someone "always" wanting to talk - sending me random pictures throughout the day - food pictures or pictures of some animals. What is the most important to me? I want to find people who value online friendships as much as they would value real life ones as there's another human being on the other side
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No comments please.Only Private messages and chat requests đş
I know It's possible to meet people with exactly the same expectations as mine but It's just not easy because most people are Interested In temporary and entertaining conversations. People like me are just "different" I really want to finally find someone who loves emojis as much as I do.. someone who loves sweet, warm and serious discussions at the same time. Emojis really do - change conversations đ
submitted by
xfallenangelx95 to
KindVoice [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 15:25 TheGangstaGandalf Discussion of the Diamond Handbook (Part 1)
Hey everyone, this will be my first attempt at a serious post on this sub. Iâm not exactly practiced in articulating my thoughts (Iâm more of a fiction writer) so please
bear bull with any mistakes and please correct me if Iâm wrong. The last thing I want to do is spread misinformation, Iâm not an expert (or a financial advisor) on any of this. I'm here to learn, not to teach.
This post will be the first in a series of me reading through the entire Diamond Handbook (2nd) and just commentating on points I find interesting or discussion worthy. I will be asking questions as well as giving my own personal thoughts based on my understanding of the events that have transpired. I became an ape right after the sneeze, and followed a lot of the discussions back then, but have been zen for a while so I haven't fully kept up with a lot of the new developments.
I haven't actually sat down and read DD in a long time, so I decided to give myself a refresher and actually look at the Diamond Handbook (2nd) for the first time. I had read a lot of these posts as they had come out, so I had never felt the need to look at the full PDF before. For the apes that havenât read it either, I recommend giving it a read. You can find the full DD library in the pinned post of this sub, and the Diamond Handbook is the first one there.
As I have been reading it, Iâve quickly realized that some of the stuff is a little outdated. That canât really be helped since so much DD has been done between then and now, but this brings me to the two reasons for this post. The Diamond Handbook is likely the first piece of DD a new ape will be recommended; I want to spark discussion to clear up some things that are misguided or outdated in this handbook. The second reason is more of a personal challenge. Whenever someone denies the legitimacy of the DD, an ape usually responds by saying something like âWell, read the DD and prove it wrongâ. The average MOASS denier wonât do this though, in my experience they just think itâs ridiculous on a conceptual level, and wonât take the time to actually look through all the DD available and construct a proper debate. I canât really blame them for this though, spending so much time on something you have no interest in doesnât sound like a fun time.
But I have a lot of interest in this, and I am an aspiring author who writes 400K word fanfictions for fun. Iâve got the time and the writing willpower. I am very big into trying to understand how a reader will interpret a piece of my writing, so Iâll be looking through that lens and will be writing this with the assumption that you have already read the Diamond Handbook (2nd). Please take the time to respond/correct what I say here, I want to learn.
With all that out of the way, letâs get started.
The Mother of All Short Squeezes (MOASS) Thesis, Published on May 26, 2021, by u(slash)HCMF_MACEFACE
Before we even get into the meat of this section I already see a bit of an issue. A lot of the language implies that MOASS is imminent, take this section for example:
*âIf you don't believe me, just look at the chart of GME which our DD (Due Diligence/research/analysis) has been forecasting for a while now. The below pattern has only preceded massive spikes in price, but this time, those on the other side of the trade are going to have a much harder time suppressing the price like they did in January and March. Thanks to the activity on 5/25, we have entered the end-game. The MOASS is beginning.â*
I think most new apes will look at this, then look at the date of posting (three years ago), and think this is delusional thinking. They will say that MOASS did not âbeginâ because it hasnât happened yet. This would be pretty short sighted though, GME has always been a Deep Value investment, long positions are called long for a reason. âBuy and HODLâ is such a repeated mantra because that is the investment strategy most apes employ. Like most investments, it takes a long time to realize gains. Your retirement account will be growing for 40+ years before you cash that thing out, GME is my retirement plan so I donât expect it to be much different.
Just because the sneeze happened in a week doesnât mean MOASS will, in theory it should be a very long event as both the shorts and longs have a test of wills to see who caves first. However, the sneeze was the âbeginningâ because it was exposed a lot of the fuckery that is going on in the market right now, I think that is the message that should be taken from this section.
*âThese terms are key to understanding the theory and speculated value of a GME investment. Hyperlinks to Investopedia, "the world's leading source of financial content on the web", have been included for most market terms and concepts and it is recommended to check them out if they are not clear. We will be breaking down some of the more complex terms and concepts within the post and framing them within the context of GME.â*
After the introduction, this post does a great job of explaining all the concepts of the stock market that are relevant to the MOASS thesis. However, I do wish it mentioned some other stock terms for the sake of new investors. Since none of the DD is supposed to be financial advice, I canât really blame them for these omissions, but at the beginning the OP does say they wanted the post to be good for newer investors, so I think some more pointing in the right direction shouldâve been provided. I do appreciate the link to Investopedia, but this DD is already a novel, and the average reader might forget about that link by the time they finish it. So an additional link shouldâve been provided at the end.
The two big concepts I see missing are Options and Wash Sales/Stop-Losses.
Options are interesting because they create a different type of buying/selling pressure compared to just buying/selling stocks regularly. There are concepts like gamma ramps and stuff that can be relevant when discussing catalysts for price movement. However, options are pretty scary for most investors, Iâve only ever bought one, and forgot about it so it auto-exercised for me (lol), so itâs not a concept I would call essential. I just think itâs better to be educated than not.
The much more egregious omission is that of Wash Sales and Stop-Losses. Wash Sales are extremely dangerous to new investors who still make decisions based on emotions and are not used to the volatility that comes with GME.
If you are unfamiliar, a Wash Sale is when a person sells a stock at a loss, then buys the stock again within a short period of time. As an example, letâs say you bought a stock at $50, then the stock goes down to $40.00 and you no longer feel comfortable with your investment. You sell the stock at a loss. You lost $10.00 on this transaction, but itâs not all bad. When you go to do your taxes, you can report this $10.00 loss to the IRS. This is good because if you make a $10.00 profit off another trade, you now donât have to take taxes out of that profit, since the IRS will see this as you breaking even in the grand scheme of your portfolio. You didnât actually make any money, so they arenât going to tax you for it.
A Wash Sale is triggered when you buy back the stock you sold in a short period of time, this can even apply if you buy a stock in the same sector. So if you buy a stock at $50.00, sell it at $40.00 then buy it again. That $10.00 loss you took can no longer be reported to the IRS as an actual loss. So when you make $10.00 on some other trade, the IRS wonât see you as breaking even, they will tax you on that $10.00.
For a stock as volatile as GME this can be very dangerous, I know people who brought in the peak, then as the price went back down they triggered a Stop-Loss (auto-sale you can program to trigger when a price falls), only to then buy back in when the stock dropped even lower, creating a wash sale that fucked their taxes.
We say âBuy and HODLâ a lot, but I think the âwhyâ of it has been lost in the meme. I personally buy and HODL because averaging down is a lot better for me than accidently triggering a Wash Sale. I fucking hate the IRS and donât want any of that smoke.
*âSPOILER: GME and \[Popcorn\] have tons of FTDs reported.â*
I just kinda donât like the mention of the Popcorn stock here, it has never been a deep value investment. If you are unfamiliar with the Deep Value investment strategy, please take a look at the old Roaring Kitty livestreams. In summary, Deep Value investing is defined by looking for stocks that are extremely undervalued and unpopular due to no fault of the company. These external factors that are making the stock undervalued can be anything, shorting, COVID, stuff like that. But what makes it a Deep Value investment is always strong management within the company. If the company is not mismanaged in any way, then it is very unlikely to go bankrupt, and will have opportunities to make a comeback. GME has Ryan Cohen leading, a proven successful businessman that has already taken precautions to ensure GameStop never goes bankrupt. Popcorn just doesnât have that. It is very short-squeezable, but itâs not deep fucking value.
*âShort sellers must eventually close, or cover, their short position.â*
Ok, but why âmustâ they? This is another point I think has been lost in the memes. There are two problems with just saying âshorts must closeâ without providing context. The first is the simple fact that there isnât a due date. Unlike a common car loan or mortgage, a short position doesnât operate on a time table. They can wait forever to close, unless they get margin called.
This next part Iâm a little shaky on, Iâm probably getting some things wrong here:
Ok, well how are they going to get margin called? The problem I see is that these Short Hedge Funds (SHF) are making a lot of money by selling naked shorts. Itâs really hard to get margin called when they are literally printing money, and since they donât have to report these their books just look to be filled with an infinite amount of cash.
So, there are a couple solutions to this:
1, Government regulation. If the SEC puts a stop to naked shorting, these SHF canât print money anymore. Eventually the interest from their positions will eat them alive, and they will get margin called. Unfortunately, MOASS has the potential to destroy the economy like in 2008, so they probably arenât too keen on just doing this without creating some kind of safety net. So I canât really count on them to help, because the government has a vested interest in keeping MOASS from happening. Itâs just not something I believe will be the catalyst. Although they might just do it on purpose given the right reason, like pinning the economic collapse on a scapegoat, or by GameStop forcing their hand by exposing the fraud somehow. Iâve seen a lot of apes hoping for one of these reasons to come to pass, but for me, I donât see enough motivation from the participating parties.
2, A price run-up. If the price of the stock can unbalance the books of the SHF enough then they could also get margin called. Iâm not counting on this either, since the price is manipulated by the process of naked shorting. Sure, they are digging a bigger grave when they suppress the price like this, but it can also help smaller SHFs with exiting their positions with OTC stuff. Over-The-Counter trades are trades made off the lit exchanges, historically it was intended to kind of simulate a transaction between two individuals, like buying a video game from a buddy off the books, no taxes, no regulation. Unfortunately, this is abused by institutions and canât even be used by individuals, making dark pools of trades full of fraud and undermines the free market. Smaller SHFs that are more at risk of getting Margin Called due to their lack of collateral, can make OTC trades with the big naked-shorting market makers to âcloseâ their positions using fake shares. Of course, this only passes the buck so to speak, but itâs a viable strategy for them since the big SHFs that take on these âbucksâ are less likely to get margin called. A lot of historic short squeezes happen because a small SHF gets margin called, then drives the price up and causes a bigger SHF to get called, and so on until theyâre all in the grave. This is why I donât really give a shit if the price goes up to $80 in a week, itâs not enough, the buck has been passed. (To be clear, I donât have proof that this is the reason for the uptick in OTC transactions, itâs just a theory. If a smarter ape than I can get on this that would be great.) But, even if a price run-up itself doesnât cause MOASS, it may give motivation for the true trigger:
3, Interest Rates. Here is the big one that I look at, that I believe will be the true cause of MOASS. Now please, correct me if Iâm wrong again, I am just an ape who dropped out of college. So, from what I understand a Short institution has to pay a certain amount of interest to the people they borrow the stocks from. This is the cost of borrowing and is how these Lenders make money. For a long time, the interest rate was at like 1%, this means that selling one naked short could cover the cost of the interest 100 times over. However, letâs say that the interest rate becomes 110%, sounds crazy, but this would mean that borrowing the share would cost more than the share. This would destroy the balances of the SHFs and ensure they get margin called. Why would this ever happen though? Because these lenders want to make money. These lenders are the real winners of MOASS, and they arenât talked about enough in my opinion. Lenders canât sell the shares theyâve lent out, their income is in the interest rates, there has to be a balance here between it being more profitable to lend the shares or to sell them. If Lenders start to think that lending their shares arenât making them more money than the alternative, they will raise interest rates to make these profits until SHFs canât pay them, then the SHFs have to return the shares, causing MOASS with the massive buyback, then lenders can just sell the shares on the way down. Lenders have a monetary business interest in causing MOASS, so they are the most likely cause of it in my opinion.
*âThis is the GME MOASS thesis. GME is a stock that stands to hit an unprecedented price point due to the fact that manipulators of the market have failed to bankrupt GameStop thanks in huge part to the Legendary Keith Gill AKA* u(slash)DeepFuckingValue*, Ryan Cohen, and all of the GME investors who took part in this saga. It may not be today, this week, or even this month, but one day soon, these toxic participants have no choice but to buy the stock to close out their short positions.â*
I donât think this is necessarily inaccurate, but I think itâs misguided, and the language here is a bit to emotive for my taste. I think the reason the company didnât go bankrupt is because of the strategic share offering made by Ryan Cohen to build up more cash than the companyâs valuation (at the time). All the other stuff was just dressing, DFV and retail did not make RC do this, this move by RC is what ensured the company literally canât go bankrupt, until then (and at the time this was posted) it was still a risk in my opinion. So this huge thanks feels kinda like a pre-cum celebration, and I've never really liked putting Keith on a pedestal, he's just an individual investor, just like the rest of us.
FAQ, Published April 12, 2021, by u(slash)BYE_TRIANGLE
*âWhy does Holding do anything?â* *âThey need your shares to cover their short positions! They got greedy. Thinking GameStop would fail, the short sellers started Naked Shorting the stock. Long story short they created synthetic stocks with their special privileges as Market Makers. But they canât cover a short with a synthetic share. So because of the Naked Shorting, the Short Sellers, multiple large greedy money managers, and Hedge Funds need a total number of shares greater than the number available to purchase. THEY NEED EVERY SHARE, EVEN YOURS CONAN!â* *âaRe YoU GuYs MaNipuLatIng THe MaRKeT?!â*
Holding does something else that I think is really important. It proves that retail is not responsible for the manipulation of the price. You see it in the mainstream media every time the price fluctuates, they say that retail and Roaring Kitty is driving the price up for the memes, and that the âmeme stock craze is deadâ whenever the price falls, claiming that retail is selling. However, it quickly becomes clear to anyone with the willingness to research that retail holds. Holding doesnât move the price at all, so they literally canât blame this sub for the fuckery that happens.
Now, on the flip side, I know people on the old sub to buy and sell with these fluctuations, they did it during the sneeze and Iâve seen comments claiming to do it last week. I think this is why Roaring Kitty really had to speak to congress about this, because a legitimate-seeming argument could be made that retail was buying and selling at high volumes. The loss and gain porn on the old sub could be presented as evidence. Here though, apes hold, we glaze purple doughnuts.
So when MOASS does happen, the massive price increase will be only due to buying pressure from SHFs, so they are the only ones that can take the blame for what happens next.
*âNo one knows how high the squeeze could take the stock price. The best rational reasoning says that these numbers \[500k per share\] are possible through the laws of supply and demand. Furthermore, it is likely that the Short Percentage is a lot higher than reported, with many suggesting that the short-sellers, cumulatively, need more than 100% of the float to cover.â*
A lot of naysayers will claim people are insane for thinking that phone number prices are possible. They will cite that it would make the companyâs valuation higher than the amount of money in the world, which is true. However, with the nature of fraudulent naked shorts being fake, the price is fake too, and the valuation of the company doesnât necessarily mean that the whole float will be sold at those prices. Yes, it shouldnât be possible, by all accounts it wouldnât make sense, but it is possible due to the naked shorting. Also, institutions that own shares likely wonât HODL out for the phone number prices, they will sell when they think itâs safe, and when they wonât get in trouble with the SEC for destroying the economy. The infinity pool (the shares that will be sold at these prices) will be a small fraction of the total amount even among retail investors. So the argument that I see against the possibility of this doesnât hold a lot of weight.
Keep in mind that even though âbuying pressureâ moves the price up, someone has to be willing to sell in order for someone to buy. So as the price creeps up from $100 to $1000 to $100000 to $8675309 someone will be selling on the way up to get there.
*âSynthetic long positions could be used to disguise their short positions as well, the mechanisms behind this practice utilize the options markets and could explain some of the crazy options activity that we have seen in GameStop the last few months.â*
So uhm⌠I donât understand âSynthetic Longsâ at all. Could an ape with more wrinkles elaborate on this? From what I can extrapolate, this may refer to an institution purchasing a naked shorted share from someone else?
*âWhile at the same time they employed the use of social engineering to slowly depress the positive sentiment for the stock on Reddit and elsewhere.â* *âYou may have been called a Shill for one of a number of reasons. This community is very inclusive and open to everyone, but because of the blatant attacks this forum has suffered a lot of people are understandably paranoid. (Myself included). Please, unless you really are a shill, donât take it personally.â*
I want to address this, because there is a lot of misconception about SuperStonk. A lot of people will claim that this sub is just an echo chamber cult that canât handle anyone questioning the narrative. This may seem true on the surface, but I think the reality is just that weâve become hyper sensitive to the social engineering the old sub fell victim to, and I remember this sub being attacked with that as well. So whenever we see a post that has extremely emotive language, we become skeptical and down vote it. Emotions have no place in investing, that is a common rule touted in even the oldest investing books, so posts that try to incite an emotional response are shot down. Apes arenât about to be manipulated again. That being said there are emotive posts that still get upvoted, ones with positive hype-filled narratives. Since these get upvoted and the negative ones donât that sometimes gives the impression of an echo chamber. This is because the facts do support the MOASS thesis, so a hype title and opening paragraph is just more agreeable with the facts-based narrative. Some people are just scrolling on their phone and donât have time to read the whole post.
However, if you go into the comments of these posts, there are apes investigating the profile history to determine if posters are bots, regardless of the pushed narrative. If you look past the upvote counter, apes are very skeptical of any post that isnât based in fact or harmless memes. The comments rule the post, and I have to say Iâve very proud of this sub for staying vigilant in the wake of Reddit restricting moderation tools.
*âRyan Cohen clearly believes in Gamestop, to the point of announcing that he will be taking equity as compensation. In fact, as of writing this all of the new Gamestop board members are going to be taking equity as compensation. This is seen as an incredibly bullish sign of the company's future success.â*
This is one of the principles of Deep Value investing, I wish this was elaborated on more of why this is bullish. This means that the board, and more importantly Ryan Cohen, is tying their individual self-worth to the company. Due to this tie, they will essentially âgo down with the shipâ if the company goes down. This means that the board and Ryan actually have an interest in the company doing well, instead of having an interest in making money off the company. You may think this sounds like the same thing, but itâs not. If RC cared more about money than the company, then he could destroy the company to make money (this is whatâs happening to popcorn), but by tying his worth to the shares, the only way for him to become richer is for the company to flourish.
I donât really like the language being used here, stuff like âclearly believesâ âseen as incredibly bullishâ are all pretty emotive and doesnât actually explain why these are positive growth signs for the company, they are just saying it is âbullishâ, the average new investor isnât even going to know what that really means. Even though GME is extremely manipulated, causing Technical Analysis to become increasingly difficult to depend on, the investment is still rooted in fundamentals of deep value.
*âBelow is a shortlist of some of the potential catalysts people are speculating about:*
-A Stock Split, or some similar move from Gamestop that recalls shares -Gamma Squeeze -Gamestopâs Q1 Earnings Call -Some speculate Gary Gensler (Newly appointed head of the SEC), may make some move that sets things in motion -DTCC rule changes taking effect -Appointment of a new CEOâ Yeah⌠this feels bad man. Iâve talked about this already, but we can rapid fire down this list.
The stock split didnât work out, since those in charge of distributing the splits did it fraudulently. Gamma Squeeze is the kind of thing that could trigger a smaller hedge fund to get margin called and cause a domino effect, but Iâve shared my theory of the OTC action. Earnings are nice, but public sentiment has always been more tied to the media manipulation than actual facts. Fucking Gary.
On the subject of bringing in new talent, I do feel like a big move will happen soon. Weâve already seen a lot of job offerings from the Corporate side of GameStop so this could be the next phase of the plan. I really think that RC has spent these last few years taking precautions to make sure the company canât go bankrupt, the last thing he wants is to turn out like Toys-R-Us. A lot of downsizing happened, so now he can start thinking about upsizing again.
Iâm not necessarily saying that these things canât trigger the squeeze, but I am saying that depending on something to start it is just inviting disappointment. I think the âno datesâ rule has been sorely forgotten lately with all the hype and speculation around Roaring Kittyâs tweets and stuff. I am a zen ape, it happens when it happens.
*âFirst of all, it is incredibly important to note your potential biases when determining if someone is just a shill trying to spread FUD. Not all FUD is invalid, someone may bring up a solid point against an otherwise great DD, and that could scare you. Remember that just because you do not like what someone is saying, doesnât make it invalid. It is important users here work with constructive criticism to refine their theories.â*
Damn, wasnât I just talking about this? This critique isnât going to just be wagging fingers, this is really good stuff that still applies today, and from what Iâve seen apes are doing a great job of distinguishing between FUD and legitimate criticism. I also want to take a second to thank the mod team, especially after their tools were restricted, theyâve been a great help.
*ââŚbut since then retail investors have been buying on every single dip in the price⌠That's more than two whole months of buying-the-dip. Now, I will not speculate on numbers here, if you want to know more you will have to read the DDs on that.â*
This is pretty outdated now. Apes have been buying for three years now, and with the advent of Direct Registering we have a much better idea of how much apes hold. I can say with confidence now that retail owns a floats worth of shares. Since there is so much naked shorting, a lot of institutions probably own their own floats too.
I glaze those purple doughnuts, yum.
Citadel Has No Clothes, Published March 14, 2021, by u(slash)ATOBITT
Ohhhh, this one is special to me, I read it when it first came out, first time I was there on release night. Letâs see how it hodls up.
*âTL;DR - Citadel Securities has been fined 58 times for violating FINRA, REGSHO & SEC regulations. Several instances are documented as 'willful' naked shorting. In Dec 2020 they reported an increase in their short position of 127.57% YOY, and I'm calling bullsh\*t on their shenanigans.â*
58 times. I donât actually know how much that number has gone up, but Iâm sure it has. I am reminded of an old saying, that if the punishment for a crime is a fine, then it only a crime for the poor. The crime being done to GME is class warfare, itâs nothing less.
*â$295,347,948,000 of that is split into options (calls & puts), while $78,979,887,238 (20.52%) is allocated to actual, physical, shares (or so they say). The rest is convertible debt securities.â*
This is why Iâm skeptical that itâs even possible for Citadel to get margin called by a normal price run-up. Letâs do some math here. GMEâs float is at 232 million-ish shares, letâs say they shorted 300% of that, just to be conservative (lmao), so thatâs 696 million. To take what the first post said, Margins donât get called unless an entitiesâ collateral becomes less than 80% of what theyâve borrowed. If they use their entire $384,926,232,238 portfolio as collateral, then GME would have to soar to a price of⌠divide by 4, multiply by 5⌠$691.32 per share. That may sound relatively reasonable, but I donât think a normal catalyst would be enough for that. I really think interest rates are the key, think about it, if they have to pay like 30% interest on all of those shares, their portfolio will be reduced by that much (kinda) and we can find a much more reasonable midpoint. Now brace yourselves, Iâm about to spend an unreasonable amount of effort on something that is probably wrong because I donât know shit about fuck about margins or getting called (I have a cash account and I lack rizz).
In order to calculate that we gotta do one of those double equation variable bullshit things we all hated in school, I forgot what they were called but I remember how to do them.
So, we have a few variables:
C = Citadelâs Portfolio = $384,926,232,238
S = Shorted Shares = 696,000,000
I = Intrest = 0.30
X = Price Per Share
Y = Citadelâs new portfolio amount after paying interest
So, X and Y are undetermined, but we have two equations to work with
C â I(X*S) = Y
This one calculates how much money is going to be in citadels new portfolio after paying interest, we calculate the interest by multiplying the cost per share, by the amount of shorted shares, and multiplying that by the interest rate, then subtracting it from their total portfolio.
Y * 1.25 = X * S
This one calculates the total amount those shorted shares have to be in order for Citadel to get margin called, by multiplying their new portfolio by 5/4 and calculating the total cost of the shares.
X * S has a direct value; we can plug the left side of the second equation into the first to get
C â I(Y*1.25) = Y
Now we just gotta isolate Y on one side of the equation.
C = Y + 0.3(Y*1.25)
C = 1.3Y * 0.375
C= 0.4875Y
C * 0.4875 = Y
Y = $187,651,538,216.03
Now we gotta find X, we can just plug in the other stuff.
(Y* 1.25)/ 696,000,000 = X
X = $337.02 per share for shitadel to get margin called on 30% interest.
Holy shit, now thatâs what I call reasonable. See how much interest can completely fuck a portfolio? They lost almost half of their portfolio value to a 30% interest to this. This is why the whole market will bleed red on the run up to MOASS, they will have to sell half of their portfolio just to pay the interest.
Citadel is probably not a good example of this, since they print the naked shorts themselves... so they would be paying interest to... themselves... when they borrow them? Citadel is so fucked up, I don't have enough wrinkles for this.
But hey, I think the concept of what I said is fine. High interest rates can reduce collateral and cause margin calls. Hey, just out of curiosity, how much is the borrowing interest rate looking now?
16.5%
SHF are fucked.
Anyway, Iâm writing this on a Wordpad document so Iâm not sure if Iâve come up on the character limit, but I think Iâm getting close so Iâll end this part here. Please let me know what Iâve got wrong or any insights you want to share, Iâll be sure to talk about any interesting comments when I do a part 2!
TLDR: I am reviewing the Diamond Handbook (2nd) and seeing what has changed in the three years since itâs been compiled. I have a bias in thinking that high borrowing interest rates are what will cause MOASS, and that is shown here. This is not meant to be an impartial analysis, just my thoughts. Not financial advice.
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2024.05.19 15:21 DeusExPersona What is Duncan's point in the story?
I've read a few answers, all of which point out to him being an anchor to "what it means to be an Atreidis", but the more I go on the more forced his inclusion becomes to me.
In Dune Messiah, by the end he serves as nothing more than a distraction for Scytale and enters a forced romance plot with Alia.
In Children of Dune, his role seems too disconnected from the rest of the story and ends in what (to me) seems like a pointless death.
In God Emperor, I really fail to see any reason why Leto II keeps commissioning gholas of Duncan and ultimately he ends up just "being there" when Siona finally succeeds in her rebellion and kills Leto.
He ends up being a plot device more than an actual character in all of these books.
I'm now reading Heretics of Dune, and for some bloody reason, everybody is trying to get Duncan gholas!
Please, help me make sense of it.
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2024.05.19 15:19 ItsssYaBoiiiShawdyy Theories on Theories: Assessing the Potential Magnitude of the May 17th Prospectus Filings, Part 1
| Edit: Basic clarification and wording, also caught that I missed the needed placement of a screenshot. TL;DR: After 3+ years of working in near silence, Gamestop has dropped a reverse uno time-bomb nuke on shorts, and I don't believe we have fully comprehended just how big and effective of a nuke it will be. They finally r eleased their plans to end the abusive short-selling once and for all... I believe the details in the filings have the answers. Need more eyes. We just need to HODL and let RC & Team work their magic. This was precisely timed and will be executed precisley. I believe they are about to throw the whole kitchen sink at em. Shorts r truly fuk. To be continued. HEY FAM, This is my first attempt at DD or a Possible DD. I don't really know what it is cuz I'm almost smoother than hedgefund CEO that's short GME. I'm long GME since before the sneeze of 2021, so I am at least marginally smarter. At the end of the day, I'm speculating while offering evidence in support of my speculation. And I remain open to constructive criticism and further insight from others. I really hope this gets more apes digging and in the think tank with me. There's plenty of foil to go around! Nothing of which I discuss is financial advice and not indicative of what you should do with your money or investments. Make your own decisions. I have no idea what I am talking about. Anyways! I am jacked af. And if it was not already obvious to you, I'll try and explain why. Credit to U / Cataclysmic98 and U / Thump4 for their posts that inspired me to go down this little rabbit hole...these posts have probably not received the prase they deserve as of yet... Links: https://www.reddit.com/Superstonk/s/rf8DbYQbWK https://www.reddit.com/Superstonk/comments/1cvc2af/g_m_e_the_green_cashandcriminalsiphoning/ These fantastic, informational posts (and in light of all other prominent DD) got me thinking...there is SO much tit-jacking juiciness packed into the these filings, its not even fair (to Kenny & Co)...What could it all mean? And don't get me wrong, whatever causes shorts to get fukd is fine by me...But I felt all analysis so far is missing the true HUZZAHHH, the spicy MEAT-A-BALL, the true WOMBO COMBO of this saga...and I am willing to bet, what is about to go down is gonna absolutely obliterate all of our minds. So, tonight, I knew I was gonna be up a while...I decided to dive in and actually read these filings...like in DEPTH. I read EVERYTHING...many sections multiple times over. These filings, all the possibilities... are a company's product of the last umpteen years of manipulation, fraud, and deceit... And I think I've got some fucking cool stuff to point you towards...and of course, it wouldn't be Superstonk without gluing some tinfoil to my head and trying to derive meaning from it all. Links to filings: https://gamestop.gcs-web.com/sec-filings/sec-filing/424b5/0001193125-24-141200 https://gamestop.gcs-web.com/sec-filings/sec-filing/s-3as0001193125-24-141159 So, since the Friday morning filings...as I read those posts, and others who have gained popularity...most speculated and mused on what could they possibly do? Wow. They could issue 7 different types of shit and friggn combinations of those types of shit from here on during the next 3 years, at any time, in any amounts they deem necessary... blah blah...So all of us are rightfully like...well which ones will they choose to execute on? If they pull the trigger on any of this, when and how? What will they spend the money on? When will they sell the 45M? Yada yada. We cannot even remotely accurately speculate as to when/how soon because they have 3 years to do optionally do any of this, obviously we hope soon af...but we can speculate as to how they do it and how fast they start pulling the trigger(s) if and once they do. What if they do it ALL? Book-Entry Securities Section of S-3 Form First, to clear something up, many apes have (understandably so) confused this use of "book-entry securities" with "book entry as it relates to Computershare". But when I asked Chat GPT 4 to analyze this whole section and break it down, it spat out the following: "Sure, letâs break this down into simpler terms: - Book-entry form*: This is like a big ledger (or book) where they write down who owns what. Instead of giving you a paper that says you own something, they write it down in this book. Itâs like when you have a library card, and they write down which books you borrowed instead of giving you a receipt*"
So, this just means Gamestop intends to issue new stock via the NYSE on the DTC's book/ledger, just like they always have. This is just them saying, you won't get physical shares mailed to you cuz that shit is obsolete. We know this. Fine, but also notice toward the bottom (*see note below), they can be issued in "registered or bearer form" and they may be "permanent or temporary". The word "temporary" really caught my eye there. Maybe they intend to eventually suck them back up for some reason? Hmm. *Sorry, forgot to post screenshot of it here, I am referring to the bottom part of the first paragraph under " Book Entry Securities" in the filings)...Here is the text if you care to read the whole thing I am referring to: "We may issue the securities offered by means of this prospectus in whole or in part in book-entry form, meaning that beneficial owners of the securities will not receive certificates representing their ownership interests in the securities, except in the event the book-entry system for the securities is discontinued. If securities are issued in book entry form, they will be evidenced by one or more global securities that will be deposited with, or on behalf of, a depositary identified in the applicable prospectus supplement relating to the securities. The Depository Trust Company is expected to serve as depository. Unless and until it is exchanged in whole or in part for the individual securities represented thereby, a global security may not be transferred except as a whole by the depository for the global security to a nominee of such depository or by a nominee of such depository to such depository or another nominee of such depository or by the depository or any nominee of such depository to a successor depository or a nominee of such successor. Global securities may be issued in either registered or bearer form and in either temporary or permanent form. The specific terms of the depositary arrangement with respect to a class or series of securities that differ from the terms described here will be described in the applicable prospectus supplement." So Chat GPT came to the rescue again, assuring that everyone who has a stock, gets the benefits of owning that stock, whether its in your own name or not. In summary, the main difference is about record-keeping. Registered stocks have a clear record of ownership with the company, while bearer stocks do not. They are owned by whoever holds them. However, bearer stocks are not commonly used today due to concerns about money laundering and tax evasion14. So, that clears that up more or less. It Takes Money to Buy Whiskey: The Warning Shots When you dig deep into these filings, you see patterns, subtleties, specific phrasing, potential omissions, etc...and I am not going to breakdown each filing in its entirety...but I want to highlight and get more eyes on some (what I believe might be) key pieces of info in them and what they might mean. Background/Perspective: In the last THREE YEARS...In addition to turning the company profitable, cutting fat, raising and sitting on $1B, near silence from the company itself as to what its grand plans will be/are... I think Gamestop spent a significant portion of the last 3 years developing a grand plan for shareholders too... They needed a plan that: (in no particular order) - Is good for EVERYONE actively involved (the company, worldwide shareholders, the employees, the executives, etc.) and bad for EVERYONE in their way of accomplishing their goals.
- Raises BIG money so they can make BIG money moves (acquisitions, mergers, investments)...$1B is a lot, but not really at the scale we are dealing with...it takes money to buy whiskey...it takes MONEY to buy something that ages and gets better as it ages (a company that not only survives in today's age but THRIVES)...it takes MONEY to make that happen. And more is certainly better than less!
- Drives insane shareholder value, makes investors want to stay, and isn't dilutive in the long term.
- Ends the short-selling schemes once and for all without (illegally) breaking the entire financial world in half in the process.
And once they had a plan, they knew they had to put it into grade A, air-tight, sealed tighter than Kenny's butthole wrapped around his favorite bedpost, impeccable, immaculate legalese. (I don't normally read legalese so my interpretations below could be way off, idk a lawyer ape might jump in to clarify). Anyways, once it was in pristine legalese, they could then share it with, well, everyone...which they just did. I am not sure every ape understands the potential magnitude of these filings...Gamestop could have literally just laid out their ENTIRE plan to LEGALLY end the abusive short selling and to finally expose their stocks true value (which they technically have the duty to do to protect the interests of their shareholders) and they laid it out for everyone to FINALLY see. (End of Background/Perspective) The Filings (The Sirens) From what I have seen, most of the speculation offered up by most Apes these last two days usually only included mentioning a combination of 2-3 of the types of securities mentioned in the filings. Or speculation on the impact a single one of them could have...Most seem to view the 45M common stock sale (Filing 424B5) as separate from the S-3ASR filing simply because they are separate filings. But 424B5 is indeed a "supplement" to S-3ASR (in case that isn't known). 424B5 is a supplemental filing to S-3ASR I speculate that it all ties together. And by "all", I mean everything...everything all at once. Musical chairs played to a beautiful symphony of Kenny & Co's worst nightmares (legend has it that the music briefly stops every time the stock halts). Who will have the last chair and win the game? (Hint: It's Gamestop) WHAT IF... Gamestop is telling everyone..."It's been long enough...this is what we are doing...but not just some of these things... ALL OF IT...ALL AT ONCE"...? Let's dig in... The Un(known) Wingman So let's talk about the Depositary Shares section and the "Preferred Stock Depositary" (PSD) that they plan to use to distribute up to 5M shares of "preferred" stock (more on that after) Why no name? Notice how they don't name their "bank or trust company". They say refer to them as their "PSD". There's probably a legal reason fo this but I'll come back to this later too. To me, this is Gamestop saying "by the way, these fractional shares won't be able to be fucked with or shorted because ________(I'm thinking Computershare, of course) is going to handle them, manage them, and store them for us)... Trust services? Check! BUT no one gets to officially know who they are until Gamestop has already pulled the trigger with the related SEC filing :D muhahaha. Also, see that there will be a "deposit agreement" that shareholders will have to agree to in order to exercise their ownership rights and privileges of the preferred stock through the PSD. Cut out the middle man...you get to take direct ownership of this shit just like DRS Book and receive all the rights and privileges of ownership, even if you only own a fraction of one preferred share. Side Note on The Book-Entry Securities Section: https://preview.redd.it/wesqanx3id1d1.jpg?width=1542&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e05c9d166556da4d04817a5b836a3658b50713f4 Now, I don't know if this is unique/important or not...but NOTICE HOW Gamestop doesn't name their PSD, but straight-up names who the depository is, the muthafuckin DTC. Unfortunately, they have to issue to these bastards first. The DTC is then expected to distribute those stocks to DTC "participants" (market makers, hedge funds, brokers, etc.) who are then expected to distribute those securities to the holder of record (you and I)...once you have those securities distributed to you, you can choose what you do with them (DRS anyone?) They also state, in writing now, how they EXPECT the DTC to act (in a lawful manner through and through). Perhaps this wasn't made crystal clear to them before the splividend, so RC made sure they knew what is expected of them from here on out with the issuance of new shares. Anyways, I thought this was a call out in light of the omission of their PSD counterpart. The Kill Shot Machine Gun: Evidence from the Filings Okay let's keep this party going... Preferred Stock: In the filings, Gamestop reserves the right to issue up to 5M preferred stocks that can be issued as fractions of a whole. (They're essentially gonna take 5,000,000 whole stocks and break them up into teeny tiny pieces so there is enough to go around.) Here is chat-gpt's ELI5 breakdown of the passage in the filing: "Sure, letâs break this down into simpler terms. Imagine you have a big chocolate bar (this is like the preferred stock). Now, instead of giving away the whole bar, you decide to break it into smaller pieces and give those pieces away. These smaller pieces are like the depositary shares, and each piece represents a part of the whole chocolate bar. The wrapper around each piece of chocolate is like the depositary receipt. It shows that you own that piece of the chocolate bar. The company that helps you break the chocolate bar and wrap the pieces is the Preferred Stock Depositary. Just like how you can enjoy the taste of the chocolate by owning a piece, the owner of a depositary share gets to enjoy the benefits of the preferred stock (like dividends, voting rights, etc.) in proportion to the size of their piece. The rules about how the chocolate bar is broken, how the pieces are wrapped, and how you can enjoy them are all written in a special agreement (the deposit agreement). And all these details are explained in a document called the prospectus supplement when you buy the pieces of chocolate. So, in short, instead of buying a whole share of preferred stock (the whole chocolate bar), youâre buying a part of it (a piece of chocolate), and you still get to enjoy all the benefits! đ" This is great. But what I think is important to pay attention to here is the number 5,000,000...sounds like a lot...but in the grand scheme of things its not at all...our float is ~71M, total DRS shares reported to be ~75.3M, total issued shares is just over 300M ( Sixty times 5,000,000), and the company is authorized to issue up to 1,000,000,000 of class A common stock !!! Right?...so 5M is a tiny, tiny, number in comparison. Whether you realize it or not, 5,000,000 is only 0.005% (1/200th..!!!) of 1 Billion. Tiny. And its not even guaranteed they'll choose to issue all 5,000,000 or to what degree it will be fractionalized. Only 5,000,000 issued through a company-chosen PSD that can't rehypothecate them, short them, fuck with them...ladies and gentleman, a commodity with true scarcity paired with high demand has entered the chat. $$$. The preferred stocks come with perks (I will speculate on perks later). So something tells me these preferred stocks are gonna go to apes/holders of record for first dibs, they will be in high-demand, carry exclusive rights and privileges, and you will be able to purchase a given amount of them relative to how many shares of the Class A Common stock you own at the time of the offering... Notice how I said purchase them (this is where "Ape Options" (subscriptions and warrants) might come into play allowing each of us (and maybe even GME employees) to pick up a shit load of common/preferred stock on the cheap yo!) https://preview.redd.it/hyjoaejigd1d1.jpg?width=1300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a33e9c940d17d8c58af9987ad3a8443c6dbeb44 Hereâs how it might work, Gamestop senses volatility, we've seen $80 and I don't think that's all we will see. So Gamestop first issues (sells) more common shares on the way up any given run, simultaneously they give currently shareholders subscription rights to load up on common stock all they want on the cheap during a specified time window.....then, once that window closes, they give us MORE subscription rights (first dibs!) that allow us to purchase preferred stock in an amount based upon how many shares of common stock we currently own at the time of that offering. Talk about insane value! Gamestop knows their loyal retail investor base has poured so much of our hard-earned money the last 3+ years...we've invested so much time and money into this. I believe RC is looking out for us and will offer these subscriptions rights at an INSANE value to us, it won't make logical sense not to exercise them (look how cheap bookstore just offered up their subscription rights shares ($0.05/share) ( https://www.reddit.com/Superstonk/comments/1cv6x37/walking\_backwards\_then\_forwards/) Credit to user N4hu1) GPT4 on Subscription Rights. So, subscription rights are like a âfirst dibsâ or âearly bird specialâ for current shareholders when a company is selling more stocks12. Itâs a way to reward loyal shareholders and help them maintain their ownership stake in the company12. However, if shareholders do not exercise their subscription rights, their ownership will be diluted12. Opionion: RC won't (and frankly, we won't) allow for much dilution, if any at all. The subscription rights might just be too good to be true and certainly too good to pass up. And everyone who purchases preferred stock receives a "receipt" or receipts for their transaction(s) (i.e. a ledger) There's a record for it all. So, Its past 6am, I've been digging and writing for 7+ hours... and so I am going to call this the end of Part 1...but more tinfoil to come! I look forward to the potential discussion. What comes next is the discussion of Subscription Rights, Warrants, and Units :D...and I believe it all beautifully comes together with the plan for the preferred stock and the PSD...and that Gamestop plans to obliterate the shorts from left, right, above, and below with some type of unfuckwithable mass scale share/security offering that is going absolutely blow the world away. Here's a sneak peak of other juicy bits I want to discuss next: Until we have another plan...we plan to invest...hmm invest where? In what? In the even of a distribution other than in cash...a public or private sale of such...\"property\". Would love to hear your thoughts thus far. More to come and thanks for reading if you made it all the way here! . submitted by ItsssYaBoiiiShawdyy to Superstonk [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 15:16 Famous-Ebb5617 New to DB design: questions about foreign key uniqueness and other basic questions
Hello all, I'm brand new to working with databases. Just as a goof off project I'm building a library database.
For a book, I've got pretty straightforward columns. Pages, title, and author. Here are my questions:
- For string-like types, there's varchar, bpchar, and text. I read the differences but I still don't know what is 'standard' for a normal string. For example, the title of the book. Do I just do text or would I do varchar?
- And then the other big question is around authors. For a book, you can have multiple authors for a single book, the relationship to books would be many to many, and they would be non-unique (there could be two authors with an identical name). I have no idea how to handle this. I think authors would be a separate table. But how would I link author names from another table to a book. Foreign keys need to be unique, and the name is not. So do I use an ID column from the author table as the foreign key into my book table? If so, how do I handle the fact that a book can have multiple authors? Is there an array type that I would use?
- Last question is around IDs generally. If there is not a guarenteed unique column, do you always need to create a non-null ID column with the serial type? Or are there some tables where you don't need a unique column? You have to for a primary key, right? Or do you not have to have a primary key for a table unless you are going to be referencing it from another table.
I know these are all dumb questions and I should take an intro to DB course or something. But I really learn by doing so getting answers as I go works way beter for me than taking courses.
Thanks!
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2024.05.19 15:14 Uszygamer [REQUEST] [STEAM] ULTRAKILL (C$ 32.50) [ATTEMPT 14]
Helloo again Gift of Games! I just had to come back to ask for Ultrakill (AKA the most amazing game everr!!!!!!!!!) this is my 14th attempt but i'll still keep going! :D
I actually have played the game again a bit more than before thanks to someone! And I can say that this game IS AMAZINGGGGGG. I mean I love it so much! ULTRAKILL is basically a very fast paced "Boomer Shooter". You play as V1, an old war robot prototype who goes to Hell itself to fuel itself with blood after Humanity has gone extinct. You go through the layers of hell based on a book called "Dante's Infernos" (correct me if I'm wrong lmao). The game is built around the style system and comboing weapons, the cooler your plays are, the more style you get. And at the end of the level you get a grade from D C B A S or the special P rank.
Ok now onto why I want this game. There is, so much tech in this game it's insane, a ton of weapons seem to work together seamlessly like mixing a ricochet coin with a railgun causing an Ultra ricochet. You can parry the projectiles from your shotgun and rocket launcher and so on and so forth. Really this game seems it was made with passion. the Music, amaaazing, I love the breakcore and how everything feels unique despite sounding similar. Graphics, well, they are made to replicate old ps1 and ps2 graphics and I feel like it works really well! Each layer of hell feels very unique on it's own and easy to recognize, Limbo is a fake paradise, lust is a big purple city with lots of electricity, greed is a desert and so on. The bosses are also just really well made, V2 and Gabriel (judge of hell) and a secret boss for P ranking all of act 1 are more fast paced and harder to aim with small hitboxes, but Corpse of Minos and Leviathan are like giants and are just fun to parry and shoot.
The story, also pretty good! Each enemy and such have their own small lore and stuff for people who actually want to go deep in the lore. This world takes place on an earth where god went "Oh damn these humans suck" And just left. So the angels in heaven scrambled to get order back in heaven and created a council (it doesn't go well) I won't spoil the entire thing cause it's pretty fun to figure out!
I'm again asking GOG for this game because I'm still looking into finding a good drawing tablet (yes I'm still doing this, figuring out which tablet I should buy is surprisingly really hard) And I'm saving up money for one! If you've played Ultrakill tell me what your favorite weapon tech is! :)
Well, Thanks for reading this, I hope I get the game, but if I don't it's not much of a big deal. :)
STEAM -
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198873626798/ GAME LINK -
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229490/ULTRAKILL/ thank you! :D
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2024.05.19 15:12 Affectionate_Run3921 My âPlaybookâ as requested
I replied to a post yesterday and in the discussion there were a number of requests for more info on how I grew my annual earnings from 28k to 750k over a 30 year period. I commented that it was nothing fancy, but that Iâm happy to share what my personal playbook was with this post.
First, there are many ways to get wealthy. Mine was the boring slow way. I didnât grow up in poverty, lower middle class is more accurate. Had two great parents who cared, but we didnât have alot financially. Put myself through a state college to get a Bachelors in business. Wanted to start my own business after graduation but needed to get a job to start paying back the school loans.
I had read every career and business book I could get my hands on, and the strategy I chose was to get hired in an entry level role at a branch of Fortune 500 company and work my way up. I was trying, but just wasnât getting hired because I didnât have any experience. From what I read, Sales would be the best place to start for me.
I was however able to get a year or so of sales experience at a small company, making 28k. With that experience I again started applying to big companies. Not in tech, and while thatâs probably one of the best fields, I really donât think field matters as much as size of company does. Big, publicly held companies benchmark compensation levels and tend to structure pay similarly to be competitive.
Ideally your background will allow you to target a large and steadily growing industry. That was my strategy thinking it would equate to more opportunities for advancement over time.
I finally landed a sales job in a small field district of a Fortune 500 company, and my pay went up to 60-70 annually. My first big jump. I outperformed my peer group and built a name for myself internally and externally in the market. A few years later I was anxious for a promotion that was still a few years away based on internal timing. When I got recruited to go work for a different company as a sales manager role, I took it. My compensation jumped to 130k. 90k base, plus bonus. Most importantly this company was doing better than my first one, therefore had more internal opportunities to apply for, which I did. I made it known I was here to learn and grow and make contributions to the business. Management liked the enthusiasm and I delivered on results.
25 years and 7 promotions later I was a VP. There was no secret advantages here. I out worked and outperformed others, kept a positive attitude, asked for mentorship, was a lifelong learner, built relationships and a good name for myself, and was willing to adapt to a constantly changing environment. I put integrity first and build a solid reputation and relationships up, down and across the large organizations.
Outside of work, my sahm wife and I raised our family comfortably on my growing salary, but we avoided lifestyle creep. Never spent much more when 750k came in than we did when 200k came in. Key was paying off all debt including our house early and investing steadily over this time period. Net worth is about $7M today and will be $10M when I retire in a few years. This is just one persons path, but perhaps itâs helpful to some of you. Happy to answer any questions here but no private messages please. Too many scams out there. Best regards.
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2024.05.19 15:09 DrYangHF7 Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door cured my paralysis (çŤçŞ)
I am grateful to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva for offering me this precious opportunity to share my experience of practising Buddhism with you.
I am 62 years old. Today, I can eat, sleep and walk like a normal person. However, did you know that I once was a paralyzed woman who could not even get up from bed, had difficulty turning over, and could not take care of myself? Through practising Buddhism and reciting Buddhist scriptures, I have completely freed myself from the misery of hell. I want to tell you with hard facts that practising Buddhism and reciting the scriptures has not only given me a second life, but has also benefited me immensely. I want to share with you how
I transformed myself from paralysis to health within four years without undergoing any surgery! May my presentation plant the seeds of bodhi in your hearts, so that more people will have faith in Guan Yin Bodhisattva who has boundless supernatural power, and recite Buddhist scriptures as soon as possible to be free from suffering and gain happiness!
1. When I was young, I opened two bars so I created bad karma, and karmic retribution is right on my heels! I am the eldest daughter of my family and the eldest daughter-in-law of my in-laws family. Both my mother and mother-in-law are Buddhist practitioners and urged me to practise Buddhism as well. However, because of my youthful ambition and good fortune, at the age of about 36, I ran two bars and enjoyed the pleasure of earning money, not bothering to practise Buddhism at all. By then, I was young and foolish, in the bars I gained filthy money by means of womanâs charms, which invariably created a lot of bad karma. How many people lost their morals and conscience for my sake of monetary gain? How many families have been broken up behind the scenes? How many people have done many things against ethics and morality under the paralysis of alcohol? I hereby express my deepest repentance to Guan Yin Bodhisattva! Karmic retribution is inescapable. I planted the evil cause so I reap the evil effect. The bad karma I created within two years of running the bars has brought me a tragic retribution 13 years later! (So, dear fellow practitioners, please take this as a warning!)
In 2010, I was 49, my predestined 369 calamity arrived. One day in July, my karma exploded. I suddenly collapsed at home kitchen while stirring frying vegetables. In an instant, I felt that the sky was falling, and I had nowhere to turn for help. An otherwise healthy me entered a life of hell on earth from then on. Every day, I ate, drank, pooped and peed in bed, had difficulty turning over, couldn't wash my hands and face, had trouble swallowing, so it was worse than death. I was paralyzed in bed from then on. The doctor said I had a herniated disc in my lower back. All the bones in my back were misaligned. Both knee bones were necrotic and so swollen. I have visited all the local city and provincial hospitals, big and small, to seek medical care. I almost spent all the several hundreds of thousands of RMB I had gained from my bar business. However, the condition got worse and worse.
2. Since encountering the excellent Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door, I have been practicing Buddhism hard to overcome any obstacles on the way and finally achieved a new life. Perhaps it was the blessing from my family members who had been making offerings to the Buddha and practising Buddhism for years. Thanks to the mercy of Guan Yin Bodhisattva, I finally encountered the Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door in 2012 when I was in the most desperate situation in my life. The person next door to my bar heard that I was sick and came to see me. She brought me Buddhist scripture, recitation device,
Buddhism in Plain Terms, counters and many other Dharma gems. She told me the Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door was very efficacious, and asked me to try it. Although I could not move on bed, I listened all Master Lu's recordings like a thirst. I was pleasantly surprised to hear cases of patients who had been cured of cancer and serious illnesses by practising Buddhism and reciting the scriptures. The recordings of Master Lu's programs were like a bright beacon in the darkness, bringing me hope for life and giving me great encouragement. I felt I was awakened by a powerful energy, stirring up my strong desire to live. I told myself: I must survive; I must save myself! I started to practice Buddhism and recite scriptures as if I had grabbed a lifeline.
I am illiterate, so I had to lie in bed every day and learn to recite word by word with the recitation device. Due to the heavy karma, there was no virtuous and the high-minded practitioner around to teach me how to burn the Little Houses in a rational and lawful way. I foolishly took an ashtray instead of a plate to burn the Little Houses, which resulted in the ashtray blowing up. In order to eliminate karma quickly, I was foolishly reciting the
Heart Sutra and
Amitabha Pure Land Rebirth Mantra after ten o'clock at night, which resulted in the light bulbs breaking several times (Here, I sincerely remind my fellow practitioners: Master Lu enlightened us not to recite the
Heart Sutra and
Amitabha Pure Land Rebirth Mantra after ten o'clock at night. Please make sure to read the
Introduction to Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door carefully in order to avoid practising Buddhism irrationally). Therefore, we must follow the instructions of Master Lu, and never do what the Master does not allow us to do. The whole process of reciting Buddhist scriptures to eliminate karma is very bumpy. It is really easy to create karma, but very hard to eliminate it! However, I firmly believed that the Bodhisattva is infinitely powerful. As long as I diligently practised Buddhism, my fate would definitely get changed. Hence, I relied on the blissful cases in Master Lu's recordings as my spiritual support. I kept persevering, not afraid of any difficulties, and recklessly recited Buddhist scriptures.
Since I ate, drank and pooped in bed, my aura was very bad. As I could not get up by myself, so I had to lie in bed to recite the sacred Buddhist scriptures. I felt guilty and torn, wondering if this was the appropriate way to recite the sacred Buddhist scriptures. Will it affect the effect of the recitation? Gratitude to Guan Yin Bodhisattva for Her compassion, and I dreamed of Master Lu that night. Master Lu who was dressed in a black suit smiled at me and kindly comforted me: âdon't worry.â After I woke up, I was very grateful for Master Lu's compassion. Master Lu knew about my special situation, so this is a sympathy and a condolence to me. After I recited Buddhist scriptures 4 to 5 months late, my neck and head were able to turn significantly. Such a Dharma blissful change thrilled me. All the trials and perseverance I had gone through in the past had not been in vain. Guan Yin Bodhisattva has boundless supernatural power, which had given me a glimmer of hope for recovery! (Here, I sincerely remind my fellow practitioners: In the absence of illness, recitation of Buddhist scriptures must be respectful. A point of respect harvests a point of benefit.)
3. The unique characteristics of attending the Dharma conference and formally acknowledging Jun Hong Lu as my master allow my physical health to improve with Dharma joy In February 2017, I befriended a fellow practitioner. She invited me to attend the Macau Dharma Convention together. I thought to myself: âcan I take the bus by myself?â âCan I attend the conference?â With a strong faith from my inner heart, I attended the conference via keeping reciting the Great Compassion Mantra on the trip. Unbelievably, I arrived at the conference as I wished with the blessing and protection of Guan Yin Bodhisattva, although my bulky legs could only barely support my body in the seat. I was in tears when I listened Master Lu's wise words and saw the holy icon of Guan Yin Bodhisattva. On the night of the conference, I dreamed of Guan Yin Bodhisattva! Gratitude to Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva for saving me from suffering and giving me a new life. At the end of the Macau Dharma Convention, I instantly made two vows: to be a vegetarian for 15 days per month and liberate 10,000 fish.
Before I attended the Macau Dharma Convention, I had to take a break whenever I walked two steps, and my body was not able to move much. After returning, my legs started to become strong enough to support my body and I could walk on flat ground. Despite they were not very flexible, they were no longer the same as when I was paralyzed like a limp in bed. My whole body is getting better and better in essence, vital energy, and spirit. I was very surprised! Master Lu has enlightened that there are many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming to bless attendees at each Dharma conference!
In August 2017, before the Dharma Convention in Malaysia, my fellow practitioners urged me to formally acknowledge Jun Hong Lu as my master. Since I am an illiterate, compassionate fellow practitioners helped me to fill out the application form of seeking discipleship. My fellow practitioners told me that there were so many people wanted to formally acknowledge Jun Hong Lu as their master that I might not be able to reach my wish this time. Then, I had to wait for the opportunity next Dharma Convention. I told myself that whether I could reach my wish or not this time, I would actively participate in Master Luâs Dharma Convention. Considering my age, it is a blessing for me to attend one more Dharma Convention. To my surprise, one week later, my application for seeking discipleship was approved. Gratitude to Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva!
On the day of seeking discipleship, I was very excited. During the process of seeking discipleship, I heard a voice in stereo that was very loud. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see Tathagata Buddha, and many other Bodhisattvas coming down from heaven. At that moment, I saw that the upper half of Master Lu's Dharmakaya appeared transparent with a huge lotus flower. I was suddenly moved to tears. I was oblivious to the fact that Master Lu had come to my side until the time of issuing the discipleship certificate. Master Lu was very compassionate and empowered me with blessing. Master Lu enlightened, "Because five people opened their eyes during the worship ceremony, they have no lotuses planted in the pure land. But it's okay, when the ceremony is over, you can go to the front and kowtow to ask the Bodhisattva (to plant a lotus)." I then rushed to the front to worship. Before I finished worshiping Bodhisattva, a young fellow practitioner came over. He asked, "How do you feel? Did you see anything?" I said, "I saw Tathagata Buddha." He asked, "How are you sure that was Tathagata Buddha?" I said, "Both my mother and mother-in-law are Buddhist disciples, and Tathagata Buddha has curly hair."
I was grateful for the compassionate blessing from Guan Yin Bodhisattva and Master Lu. When I returned home after seeking discipleship, I made two vows: to be a vegetarian for the rest of my life and never kill (animals). The power of a vow outweighs the force of karma. After I made the vows, Master Luâs Dharmakaya came to help me heal my legs in my dreams. Once, I saw Master Luâs Dharmakaya passing by my room while I was half-squinted. Master Lu asked me, "Which foot is uncomfortable? Where is aching?" Instantly I woke up and then I found that my feet didn't feel as heavy as they used to be and I walked more lightly. I excitedly shared the news with my old father, "Master Lu has come to bless me again!" I am grateful to Master Lu for his compassionate care for every sentient being. Every time I dreamed of Master Lu, he would always compassionately endow me with abundance of blessing, and I was always surprised by the improvement in my health.
In a short time, I could not only separate my feet and take turns to walk up and down the stairs independently. Moreover, I could bend back and forth freely with my arms crossed. The bones in my back, which were all misaligned and uneven, were now completely normal again. Previously, I couldn't raise my hands to wash my face, brush my teeth or comb my hair because the bones in my back would pull the nerves and cause severe pain when I raised my hands. In those days, whenever I sneezed or defecated, I felt like to cheat death on pain. In those hellish day I went through unimaginable pain and suffering. Now, however, I can take care of myself completely and move around freely. Sometimes I get a little tired after walking for too long, but I can recover after 10 minutes of rest in bed. Although it is still slightly bumpy while I was walking, if you don't look closely, you can't see it. My family was overwhelmed to see the dramatic change from being paralyzed and bedridden to walking independently since I practised Buddhism. My old father, who was taking care of me at the bedside, complimented me straight away: you have completely changed, becoming healthier and healthier now! I was so excited that I had tears in my eyes. Without the rescue of Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva and Master Lu, I really wouldn't have the blissful transformation I have today!
In 2019, at the Dharma conferences of Indonesia and Singapore, I pleaded with my fellow practitioners to be merciful to give me the opportunity to volunteer. According to the rules of the Dharma conference, I was already overage. However, I was adamant that I must do volunteer work. Guan Yin Bodhisattva has given me a second life, so I have to serve all sentient beings physically. I am grateful for Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva who helped me out. When I came back from the conferences, I found that I could bend and squat easily and freely, and I had no problem even sitting on the floor. I am grateful to Guan Yin Bodhisattva for compassionately helping me to eliminate my karma at every conference, so that I can obtain incredible blessings and improvement occur every time.
4. The incredible blessing of setting up the Buddhist altar accelerated my health recovery and created a medical miracle. From the time I set up the Buddhist altar in 2017, I insisted on offering Bodhisattvas incenses morning and evening every day. At first, the body was still straight and could not bend and bow. For two years, in front of the Buddhist altar, I prayed for Bodhisattvas to bless me so that I could recover my health a little better so I can use my own experience as an example to convince sentient beings to gain faith on Dharma and practise Dharma. Gradually, I was able to stand to offer incense to Bodhisattvas, to bend and bow, and finally to kneel in front of the Buddhist altar to recite the scriptures. I was full of Dharma joy! Initially, my back still hurt from kneeling. With the karmic obstacles being removed, my back didn't hurt anymore. Sometimes when I went out with fellow practitioners to set up the Buddhist altar, particularly on the Buddha's Birthday, I could kneel to recite the
Eighty-eight Buddhas Great Repentance for an hour and a half. My fellow practitioners couldn't keep it up, so I was the only one who kept it up until the end. I am so grateful to Guan Yin Bodhisattva for Her compassionate blessing!
At one time, the doctor at the provincial hospital told me that I had to have surgery to put two steel plates into the bone, but I refused. Because I firmly believe that with the of blessings of Guan Yin Bodhisattva and Master Lu, I am afraid of nothing. Buddha is an extraordinary doctor. The only way to recover completely is to repent sincerely and practise Buddhism. I can now move as freely as a normal person. This medical miracle achieved was completely relied on practising Buddhism, reciting scriptures, being a vegetarian, helping new practitioners to set up Buddhist altars, volunteering at Dharma conferences, and actively propagating the Dharma. To improve my family economic financial, I went out to work on construction sites as a helper, do cleaning and housekeeping!
Those patients who were once slightly paralyzed did not recover as quickly and well as I did, even with surgery.
Dear readers, when you see such a dramatic change in me, what are you hesitating for? Hurry up and pick up the Buddhist scriptures to recite! I am the living example, the ironclad evidence. Guan Yin Bodhisattva does exist, and She is Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate, answers any prayers.
Thinking of the bad karma I created in the two bars when I was young, I feel grievously sinful. I have earned ill-gotten wealth, but the karma was produced, and karmic retribution is inescapable. If one hasn't been retributed, the time hasn't come yet. After I got old, all the retribution came to me. Not only did I use up all my money, but I also had to suffer from physical illness and paralysis. I advise everyone to remember Master Lu's enlightenment: Do not do anything that is evil; Do not fail to do good no matter how petty the deed; Do not engage in evil no matter how trivial the deed. Dear readers, please consider it carefully before earning any money, and donât commit such deep sins as I did for the sake of monetary gain, or else the consequences will follow you!
Without the merciful salvation and blessings of Guan Yin Bodhisattva and Master Lu, I would not have been reborn today! I made a few great wows: honour the teacher and respect his teachings, live an ascetic life for lifetime, be a vegetarian lifetime, not kill, not eat eggs, not smoke, not drink; transcend the cycle of rebirth for good and attain enlightenment in one lifetime. In this life, I will follow Guan Yin Bodhisattva to cultivate my mind and change my behaviour and never quit. I will follow my benefactor, the Compassionate father, Master Lu, to propagate Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door and never stop! Although I am over 60 years, I will continue using my own experience as an example to convince sentient beings to gain faith on Dharma and practise Buddhism. Together with my fellow practitioners, I will get up early and go home late to help set up Buddha altars for new practitioners. No matter how far and how difficult the trip is, I will always be strict with myself. I will go wherever I am needed. Even if I am eating, as soon as I receive a mission for propagating Dharma, I will put down my chopsticks and set off without delay.
Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door is peerlessly efficacious, and Guan Yin Bodhisattva is Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate, saves beings from suffering, has supernatural power, and answer all prayers. As long as we have a devout heart and we persist in reciting Buddhist scriptures and practicing Buddhism, no difficulty can defeat us! My physical changes are the most powerful evidence! May my true presentation give some inspiration to those people who are still suffering from illnesses, so that they can acquire faith to practising Buddhism, and pick up the Buddhist scriptures to recite. May more sentient beings having affinity with Buddha break free from delusion and attain enlightenment, balance egoism and altruism, and free from suffering and gain happiness.
My deepest gratitude to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva!
My deepest gratitude to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from ten directions and three periods of time!
My deepest gratitude to the Dharma protectors!
My deepest gratitude to the selfless and altruistic Master Jun Hong Lu!
If there is anything that is not rational or in line with the truth in the presentation, Iâd like to seek forgiveness from the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Dharma protectors, and Master Jun Hong Lu.
Iâd also like to seek forgiveness from my fellow Buddhist practitioners.
I, not my fellow practitioners, will be responsible for my own karma!
Shared by: Dharma Practitioner Ganen, Gratitude and Namaste!
Translated by: Frank
Statement by Translator - Story was translated from Chinese into English by meaning, not word by word. If there is anything that is not rational or in line with the true meaning of the Chinese version, Iâd like to seek forgiveness from the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Dharma protectors and Master Jun Hong Lu.
- Author Ganen was interviewed by Frank during the translation for the detailed information.
Propagation It would be greatly appreciated if you would forward this presentation to all sentient beings you know, sick or healthy. You will accumulate immeasurable merits and virtues. Saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda!
Would you like to change your destiny? We will show you how to do the Five Golden Buddhist Practices of Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door: (1) making vows, (2) reciting Buddhist scriptures (sutras and mantras), (3) performing life liberation, (4) reading
Buddhism in Plain Terms, and (5) repenting. You will personally witness how you and your family can achieve physical and mental stability, relief from illness and grievances, wisdom growth, academic progress, career advancement, and family happiness through Dharma. Itâs free of charge.
Contact Buddhist practitioner: Lily
Email: [
sunnypurplelily@gmail.com](mailto:
sunnypurplelily@gmail.com)
WeChat: HanJing20210820
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揢čżčçťć䝏 Lilyä˝ĺďź
sunnypurplelily@gmail.com Lily垎俥ďź
HanJing20210820 Disclaimer of Liability: The contents of the presentation and answers, including text, images, and other information obtained from Dharma practitioners, are provided strictly for reference purposes. Due to the unique nature of individual karma, results similar to those experienced by the authors may not be replicated. The experiences and advice shared should not be construed as medical advice or a diagnosis.
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2024.05.19 15:02 xMysticChimez The Self-Interpretation of Jesus Christ: A Study of the Messianic Consciousness as Reflected in the Synoptics... by George Sidney Streatfeild
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etailed Overview: Delves into the self-awareness and messianic consciousness of Jesus Christ as portrayed in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Streatfeild examines how Jesus understood and communicated his identity and mission, offering a scholarly analysis of the texts to uncover the nuances of Jesus' self-perception and its implications for Christian theology.
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ey Themes and Insights: Messianic Consciousness: Streatfeild explores the concept of messianic consciousness, analyzing how Jesus perceived his role as the Messiah and how this self-awareness is reflected in his teachings and actions as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels.
Synoptic Gospels Analysis: Provides an in-depth study of the Synoptic Gospels, focusing on passages that reveal Jesus' self-interpretation. Streatfeild discusses the context and significance of these passages, offering insights into how Jesus' messianic consciousness influenced his ministry.
Historical and Theological Context: Places Jesus' self-interpretation within the broader historical and theological context of first-century Judaism. He examines how contemporary Jewish expectations of the Messiah shaped and were reshaped by Jesus' self-understanding.
Jesus' Identity and Mission: Investigates how Jesus articulated his identity and mission, including his use of titles such as "Son of Man" and "Son of God." Streatfeild analyzes these titles to uncover their meaning and significance in the context of Jesus' messianic consciousness.
Implications for Christian Theology: Discusses the theological implications of Jesus' self-interpretation for contemporary Christian faith. He considers how understanding Jesus' messianic consciousness can deepen and enrich Christian beliefs and practices.
Scholarly Approach: Adopts a scholarly approach, drawing on historical-critical methods, linguistic analysis, and theological reflection to provide a comprehensive study of Jesus' self-interpretation. Streatfeild engages with various scholarly perspectives, offering a balanced and nuanced analysis.
Practical Insights: While primarily scholarly, the book also offers practical insights for readers seeking to deepen their understanding of Jesus' identity and mission. Streatfeild encourages readers to reflect on how Jesus' messianic consciousness can inform their own faith and spiritual journey.
Audience Takeaway: "The Self-Interpretation of Jesus Christ: A Study of the Messianic Consciousness as Reflected in the Synoptics" is an essential read for theologians, biblical scholars, and anyone interested in deepening their understanding of Jesus' self-awareness and its implications for Christian theology. George Sidney Streatfeild provides a rigorous and insightful analysis that sheds new light on the Synoptic Gospels and the messianic consciousness of Jesus.
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our Experiences and Reflections: Have you explored the concept of Jesus' messianic consciousness in your studies or spiritual practice? How has George Sidney Streatfeild's analysis of the Synoptic Gospels influenced your understanding of Jesus' identity and mission? Share your reflections on the significance of Jesus' self-interpretation and its impact on your faith and theological perspectives. Letâs discuss the insights and challenges encountered in studying the messianic consciousness of Jesus and its relevance for contemporary Christian belief and practice.
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2024.05.19 15:01 ibid-11962 Writing and Publishing Eragon [Post Murtagh Christopher Paolini Q&A Wrap Up #6]
As discussed in the first post, this is my ongoing compilation of the remaining questions Christopher has answered online between August 1st 2023 and April 30th 2024 which I've not already covered in other compilations.
As always, questions are sorted by topic, and each Q&A is annotated with a bracketed source number.
Links to every source used and to the other parts of this compilation will be provided in a comment below. The previous post focused on
details about the writing of Murtagh. This installment will focus on
The Writing and Publication of Eragon, including the early abandoned starts and drafts the preceded the self-published version and Christopher's journey towards getting traditionally published. In this post the topics are arranged in almost a chronological order. The next post will focus on the writing of the Fractalverse, and so will be posted on
/Fractalverse.
Writing and Publishing Eragon
The Original Idea
[When I start to write a new book] I have an image. Thereâs always a strong emotional component to the image, and itâs that emotion that I want to convey to readers. Everything I do after that, all of the worldbuilding, plotting, characterization, writing, and editingâall of itâis done with the goal of evoking the desired reaction from readers. In the case of the Inheritance Cycle, the image was that of a young man finding a dragon egg (and later having the dragon as a friend). [10]
Who's your favorite character to write? Well, for me, it's the dragon Saphira. She's the reason I got into writing a dragon. She came first? She came before Eragon? Like she was the catalyst? The relationship came first, her and Eragon. [33]
I was specifically inspired by a YA book called Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, which is a delightful book. I just loved that idea so much of finding a dragon egg, I was like, "Well, what sort of a world would a dragon come from?" And I knew I wanted the sort of bond between rider and dragon that Anne McCaffrey had, but I wanted the intelligence of the dragons that you find elsewhere, and the language and the magic. And I wanted sparkly scales because it just seemed like dragons are fabulous creatures and they ought to have sparkly scales. That's the fun thing about writing your own books. You can make them exactly the way you want to make them, and hopefully then that appeals to the audience as well. [30]
All of that kind of was swirling around in my head, and I wanted to write about dragons in a way that kind of combined a lot of elements in a way that, "I like this", and "I like this piece", and "I like this piece", but I kind of wanted to have all these different pieces in one type of dragon, and no one had quite done it exactly the way I wanted. [30]
I live in Montana, and our library is an old Carnegie or Rockefeller library, and especially back in the 90s, it didn't have that many books. So once I read all the fantasy in the library, I thought I had read all the fantasy there was to read. Because I was not the smartest kid in the world sometimes. And I kind of thought, "Well, it's the library. They have all the books that exist, right? All the books that matter are in the library." And I really had no idea what to read after that. So I decided to start writing myself and to try and write the sort of story that I would enjoy reading. And of course, what I enjoyed reading was books about flying on dragons and fighting monsters and having adventures. [35]
Reading and literature was always important in our family. My father's mother was a professor of comparative literature and wrote books on Dante and all sorts of stuff like that. Was the myths and folklore part of your life at this time? Yes, but I should clarify that it wasn't formally introduced to me. It was in the house. People weren't wandering around talking about. It was just like the Aeneid is sitting on the shelf. I would go read things. I have a great uncle. He's 90 now, my mother's uncle. Guy is still sharp as a tack. It's amazing. But he gave me a set of cassette tapes of Joseph Campbell, who did Hero of a Thousand Faces. So that was my exposure to his theories of the monomyth and the eternal hero and all sorts of things like that. That got me very much interested in and thinking about the origins of the fantasy that I was reading because I was reading Tolkien and David Eddings and Anne McCaffrey and Raymond Feist and Jane Yolan and Andre Norton and Brian Jaques, and all of these you know authors who were popular at the time. I was very curious where does this come from. Tolkien, of course, felt like sort of the origin in a lot of cases but then I was discovering that, there are earlier stories that even Tolkien was drawing from. That was really a revelation to me. I really sort of got enamored with it. A lot of fantasy is nostalgic and that appealed to me because I was homeschooled and my family didn't really have a lot of relatives in the area, so I felt very unmoored from the rest of society. I think I was looking for a sense of tradition or continuity with the past and fantasy helped provide that. That's an incredibly articulate thought for a 15-year-old author. Or has that come with age? No, it was something I was feeling at the time. You were conscious of it at the time? Well, listening to the Joseph Campbell stuff, I was looking: Where are our coming of age traditions? Where is the great quest to go on to prove yourself as a young adult, as a man? Where's the great adventure? What do I do in life? Those are all things that are part of the adolescent experience and always have been which is why so many mythic stories about coming of age deal with those questions. I think it's a universal thing. That's why Harry Potter, Eragon, Twilight, all of these have appealed so much because they deal with adolescence. They deal with finding your place in the world as an adult when you're starting as a young adult or a child. [28]
What games have taught you to be a better writer either in creating characters or worldbuilding or plotting even? All of my gaming experience was computer games, video games. One that had a huge influence on me was the old Myst series. Personally I love solving puzzles, so that's the first thing. And also the concept of the series, especially with the second game, Riven, it's all based around people writing books that create new worlds. And you get to go in them and solve puzzles and understand how that world works. And that just tickled every single part of my brain back in the day. Now, I'm going to be slightly unkind here, and I apologize if the author [David Wingrove] is listening to this, but there were a couple of novels based off of Myst. And I was such a fan of the series that I got the books, and I started reading them. And my first thought was, "I could do better than this." And so I decided to rewrite the first Myst novel. And I created a document in MS Word, and I got exactly three sentences into my rewrite. And I thought to myself, "okay, I think I can do this, but I could never sell it. So I better go write something of my own." And the next thing I did was Eragon. So video games kind of had a direct influence on me writing. But actually reading something that I felt was not particularly successful was such an inspiration. Because it was like, "this got published, I know I can at least get to this level." And it was published. And then maybe I can shoot for a little bit higher. [pause] I think some people have had that experience with Eragon. [26]
Early Abandoned Starts
I had the original idea, the concept of boy finding dragon egg, and I tried writing a couple of very short versions of Eragon when I was fourteen, and none of them panned out so I stopped writing for a while. [28]
Real World Version
What do you remember about the early days of writing âEragon?â Originally, Eragon was named Kevin and the story was set in the real world. But I only finished around 10 pages. [16]
I wrote three versions of Eragon before I wrote the version that had the unicorn, which was the first major draft. The first version was set in the real world, and that's why he's named Kevin. And the reason it was set in the real world is I was inspired by Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher, which is set in the real world. [32]
I was specifically inspired by a book called Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville. By the way, Bruce knows this. If you haven't read it, it's a great book about this young man in the real world who, spoiler, goes into an antique shop and buys a stone that ends up turning out to be a dragon egg. And I really loved that idea of a stone that was actually a dragon egg and the young man becoming joined with the dragon. And so I tried writing the story. And I got exactly five pages or six pages into it and I ran into a brick wall, because a boy finding a dragon egg is a good event, but it is not a good story. And I needed to figure out what was going to happen after that. I didn't know that at first. [36]
Arya Opening Fantasy Version
But then I was going down the rabbit hole of, "Well, if there's a dragon, where did the dragon come from? What if it were an actual fantasy world where the dragons were native?" And then that led me to then write a second beginning--I didn't get very far with this--that was more of a traditional fantasy story, and it opened with Arya and a couple other elves escaping a dungeon with a big battle, and at the very end of the battle, they send the dragon egg away, and Kevin finds it. But I didn't have the rest of the story, so I stopped writing it in that format. [32]
So I tried writing a second version of the story. So the first version of that story I wrote was set in the real world. Second version was more of like a fantasy world. [36]
I had the original idea when I was fourteen. I even wrote an early version of the story where it was set in the real world. But I soon realized that it was a lot more interesting to have a dragon in a fantastical setting. [8]
Research Break
I tried writing before and I always failed because I would only get like four to six pages into a story and then I didn't know what to do next. And that was because I didn't actually have my story. All I really had were the inciting incidents, like a boy finds a dragon egg in the middle of a forest. Great. But that's not a story, that's just one event. What happens as a result? So before starting Eragon, I was very methodical about this. I read a whole bunch of books on how to write, how to plot stories. [35]
I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. And I didn't know how to do what I was trying to do. Now, fortunately for me, my parents had noticed that I was getting interested in writing. And all of a sudden, books appeared in the house. There was no comment, no one forced it, these just magically appeared, and I read them. Some of the books that were incredibly helpful to me were these books that were called The Writer's Handbook, which was a collection of essays published each year by The Writer's Digest magazine. I had one from 1998, and I had one from, I think, 1993, or something like that. And there were essays from Stephen King and John Grisham and I think Ursula Le Guin and all sorts of other authors about what it was like to be an author both professionally and creatively. And that was incredibly helpful to me because again, the internet was not a resource. But the book that really made the difference for me was a book called Story by Robert McKee. It's a book for screenwriters and it's all about the structure of story. And up until that moment, I had never really consciously thought about the fact that stories have structure and that you can control that structure for the effect on the readers. So I devoured that book and I said, okay, I'm going to try this again. [36]
Did you very much sit down and study structure and character development and etc? I did. It wasn't a formal course or anything, it's just that my parents started buying these books and they started showing up. In fact, I still have them here on my shelf. This bookcase to my right is full of research books, technical books, language books. I read a book called Story by Robert McKee, which is a screenwriting book, that was and often has been very popular in Hollywood. It's a fairly technical look at story structure. I would never say do everything he says because of course you shouldn't necessarily follow any one formula, but that book really got me thinking about the fact that stories do have structure, which I hadn't really thought about before that. And that one can control that structure, and that this gives you something to work with. Before Eragon, I tried writing a number of stories and I never got past the first four to six pages, ten pages, because I never had the plot. All I would ever have was the inciting incident which, in the case of Eragon, is a young man finds a dragon egg. Ok, fine, but that's not a story. So when I read that book, then I was like wow, so I can control the structure of this. [28]
The problem with all of my early writing was that Iâd get an idea and just start â I didnât actually have a plot. But I was a pretty methodical kid, so I started reading about how to write. Fortunately, my parents are observant, and these kinds of books magically began appearing in the house. And I read all of them. [16]
Unused Arya Outline
So at this point, I was 15, that's when I graduated from high school and I was very methodical about it because I hate failing. So I said, okay, I'm going to create a fantasy world. And I did that. And then I said, I'm gonna plot out an entire book in this fantasy world. And I did that too. And then I said, but I'm not gonna write this. This is just a thought exercise. I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna stick it in a drawer. And I still have that to this day, that world and that story, I still have it sitting in a drawer somewhere. [36]
Then I spent some time and I created an entire fantasy world and I plotted out an entire fantasy novel in that world and I did not write it. I just stuck it in a drawer and that's where it's been sitting for 25 years now. And then I just did that to prove to myself that I could plot out an entire book. [35]
Before writing Eragon, again I was very methodical even as a teenager, I created an entire fantasy world. Wrote pages and pages about the worldbuilding, and then I plotted out an entire story in that world just to prove to myself that I could plot a story, create a world, and then I didn't write it. I put it aside. I still have it all saved. Put it in a drawer. [28]
Kevin
Writing The First Full Draft
And then I decided okay now I'm going to plot out a trilogy, because all great fantasy stories are trilogies. I'm going to do it as the heroic monomyth, because that is, at least my understanding back then, is this is one of the oldest forms of stories. I know it works on a general sense. It's going to give me a safety net, and then I'm going to write the first book as a practice book just to see if I'm capable of producing something that's three, four, five hundred pages long. And that's what I did. That was about two and a half months of worldbuilding, plotting, creating this. Then I wrote the first book and that was Eragon. That was my practice book. I never actually planned on publishing Eragon. It was only after I'd put so much work into it and my parents read it that then we proceeded with it. I was aware of story structure. I continue to read lots of books on it. [28]
And then version three is the version that everyone generally knows. And that's where I spent the time to plot out the whole series before writing, because having a idea of where you're going seems to help with the writing, at least for me. Usually. [32]
I originally saw Eragon as a practice novel, which is part of why itâs a very typical heroâs story. I knew that structure worked and it gave me the safety net I needed. [16]
The first draft went super fast. It went really fast because I had no idea what I was doing. And I just wrote that sucker. I wrote the first 60 pages by hand with ballpoint pen, cause I didn't know how to type on a computer. And then by the time I typed all that into the computer, I knew how to type. I did the rest in the computer. But this was back in the day when computers were fairly new. We had a Mac classic, which only had two megabytes of RAM. And the problem is that the operating system chewed up some of that memory. And my book file was around two megabytes large. So I actually had to split the book into two because I couldn't open the whole file on the computer or the computer would crash. So I had to open half the book and then close that and then open the other half. [35]
The First Draft
Once I finished the first draft, I was super excited and I thought, "well all of these things on how to write say that you should read your own book and see if there's any tweaks you wanna make." But I was really excited because I was getting to read my own book for the first time, and I thought this is gonna be awesome. And it didn't take very long while reading it to realize that it was awful. It was horrible. And just to give you an idea of just how bad that first draft was, in the very first draft of Eragon, Eragon wasn't named Eragon, Eragon was named Kevin. And there was also a unicorn in that first draft at one point, so you know it wasn't very good. [35]
If I heard correctly as I was reading, Eragon wasn't originally called Eragon? No, in the first draft of the book he was called Kevin. There's a reason! Look I have an explanation for it, okay. The explanation is that my original inspiration was Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher which is set in the real world. The original version of Eragon that I was developing was set in the real world and when I decided that it would make more sense to have a world where the dragons were native to and switched it over to this fantasy world and began to develop that, I just kept the name that I'd been working with, which was Kevin. Naming a main character is hard, especially when you get used to a certain name. I don't want to say I was lazy. I want to focus on the world building and writing the first draft and I'll worry about the name later. [28]
There is an early version of Eragon that no one's seen, that even my editor at Random House never saw. And that was my first draft. And in that first draft, Eragon encountered a unicorn in the Beor Mountains on the way to the Varden. And the unicorn touches him and essentially affects the transformation that he goes under during the blood oath ceremony with the elves in the second book, in Eldest. And his whole storyline with the Varden once he gets to Farthen DĂťr is completely different because now he has these abilities and he and a team of people ends up getting sent on a scouting mission in the dwarven tunnels to go find the Urgal army and then they have to flee back through the tunnels to warn everyone of this huge army and I had a underground cave full of lava, and multiple shades, and a huge Urgal army. There was there was a lot of dramatic stuff. Finding the Ra'zac in Dras-Leona was completely different. This is the draft where Eragon was named Kevin. [32]
I haven't thought about that version in ages. I think Arya was awake all the way from Gil'ead to Farthen DĂťr in that version. That's right, I had to completely rewrite that. It's an unpleasant ride for her. No, no, no, she was awake and healed. She was awake. That's right, God, I had to rewrite most of the last chunk of the book now that I think back, it's been a long time. [32]
The worst thing is, I think Kevin would actually take a larger budget [to adapt to film]. No, stop. Why would Kevin take a larger budget? Because the battles were bigger, there was more stuff going on. Seriously, there were more creatures, more travel. Yeah, I think Kevin would actually take more money than Eragon. [32]
You said that Eragon's name was originally Kevin. Was Eragon's name originally Kevin? It was. And I really regret I didn't stick with it because I think that as many books as I've sold, the series would have been at least twice as successful if it had been about the adventures of the great dragon writer Kevin. Especially just seeing Kevin on the front cover. Imagine the appeal to the modern youth. Kevin the dragon writer. I mean Eragon, it's confusing with Aragorn. Oregano. Oregon. But Kevin, Kevin stands out, Kevin's original. That's why I had to move away from it. [31]
Releasing the Kevin Cut
So do you wanna share some of those drafts with us, Christopher? Just kidding. Well, I actually had a fan reach out to me. He's one of the big members of the online fan community on Reddit and elsewhere. And he's kind of interested in some of these early versions from almost an archivist point of view, a scholarly point of view. Which is certainly an interesting idea. I mean, there is an early version of Eragon that no one's seen, that even my editor at Random House never saw. ... I cannot describe how much the Internet absolutely needs for you to put out an edition of Eragon that just says Kevin. Should this be like Mistborn or Way of Kings Prime? This is the Kevin edition of Eragon. The Kevin cut. Oh my god. It's "Eragon: Kevin's Version". ... We absolutely need Kevin's Version of Eragon. That's something we need. It's bad. It's bad. Look, there are certainly people who can look at Eragon, the version we have now, and say, "we can tell this was a younger writer." I look at it and I can tell. I could do so much more now with the material than I could then. But if you think that about the published version of Eragon, man, if you saw the unpublished version, the early version, it really is the raw writing of a homeschooled 15-year-old, who wrote a 500 page book about Kevin. I don't know, the internet is very unhinged these days. They would love this. It needs to exist somewhere on the internet. [32]
Publishing
Editing
So I wrote Eragon, and then I read the first draft and it wasn't particularly good, so I spent a good chunk of a year rewriting it as best as I could. I didn't know what I was doing but I was trying. I've heard it said that being displeased with your own work is actually a good thing because it means you know what is good work, and if you're not happy with your work because it's not good, it means you could at least have a goal to shoot for. If you read your work and you're like this is the best thing that's ever been written, you're never going to get any better. [28]
But I could see that the book needed work, so I decided to try to fix it as best I could, and I spent the better part of that year revising, rewriting, changing Kevin to Eragon. And then I gave the book to my parents and fortunately for me, they actually enjoyed what I had done. And they said, we think you have something, let's try to take it out into the world and see if anyone else wants to read it. [35]
Self-publishing
[We] decided to self-publish the book as a joint venture since we didn't know anyone in the publishing world. That was again a good chunk of a year where we were editing the book as best the three of us could. Preparing it for publication, formatting, I drew the cover. [28]
Now you have to understand, my parents were always self-employed, have always been self-employed and we were always looking for things we could work on together as a family business. And Eragon was like the perfect opportunity for that. They'd had some experience self-publishing a couple of small educational books my mom had worked on. Because she was a trained Montessori teacher, and so she was trying to use that expertise to write some material herself. But I don't even think we sold 100 copies of those. So we spent another good chunk of a year preparing the book for publication with doing more editing, doing the layout, designing the cover. [35]
The first set of 50 books showed up while we were watching Roman Polanski's Macbeth, which seemed fitting because those first 50 books were all miscut from the printer. And as a result, we had to rip the covers off, send them back for credit from the printer, and then burn the insides of the books. So we had a proper book burning in our yard, and I actually saved some of those burnt pages just as a memory of that event. [35]
Self publishing wasnât as viable then as a pathway to a career as an author as it is today. Why did it work for you? Everything completely changed because of e-readers. If you wanted to read an e-book, you had to have a PDF on your computer. There were no distribution systems like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Back then, the lowest amount you could print and not have the book be too expensive was probably about 10,000 copies. But we were fortunate because print-on-demand had just become a thing, so books were just printed as needed. Self publishing is a lot easier these days. Of course, todayâs marketplace is a lot more crowded as a result. [16]
Promotion
My family and I were going around the western half of the United States with the self-published edition of Eragon. I was cold calling schools, libraries, and bookstores to set up events. I was doing two to three one-hour long presentations every single day for months on end at various times. You have to understand that because my parents were self-employed, the time they took to help prepare Eragon for publication was time they weren't working on other freelance projects that would have been bringing in money. So by the time we actually had Eragon printed and in hand, if it had taken another two to three months to start turning a profit, we were going to have to sell our house, move to a city, and get any jobs we could. Because of that financial pressure I was willing to do things I probably would have been too uncomfortable to do otherwise. Like doing all those presentations. [28]
We were doing a lot of self-promotion. I was cold calling schools and libraries and talking them into letting me do presentations. And that worked pretty well because the librarians could take pre-orders for us. If we went into a bookstore, by hand selling, I could maybe sell anywhere between 13 to 40 books in a day. 42 was like the best I ever did, but usually it was around 15 or so books, which just didn't cover printing costs and travel and food and all of that. But going into the schools, we were doing about 300 books a day, which was excellent. [34]
Can you tell me a little bit about how you and your family self-published the first Eragon book and what marketing strategies you did? Oh, it was all nepotism, you know. I wouldn't have gotten published without my parents. There's nothing as powerful as a publishing company that's four people sitting around a kitchen table in the middle of rural Montana. So yeah, without Nepotism, I wouldn't have gotten published. You have to embrace something like Nepotism if you really wanna succeed in today's world. In fact, people don't realize that you actually get a Nepotism card. There's a secret club. You go to New York and there's huge network opportunities. There's branches of the club everywhere, especially strong in Hollywood, of course, in music. Taylor Swift is an example. So if you can get into the nepotism club, I won't say you're guaranteed success, but you got about 80% chance of actually making it that you wouldn't have otherwise. Do you think your mom and dad would be willing to be my mom and dad? No, absolutely not. No, no. You don't have brown hair, so it doesn't work. You have to have brown hair to be a Paolini. Okay, I'll try to find a different way in, I guess. [31]
Getting traditionally published
So you were very much looking for that partnership? Well we were wary. But the thing is is we were selling enough copies of Eragon that to scale it up we were going to have to start duplicating all the things that a regular publisher does. We were actually looking at partnering with a book packager or a book distributor just to get more copies out. To do everything a traditional publisher could do for me was a huge amount of work so it made sense to pair with Random House or someone else at that point. But it was still nerve-wracking because the book was being a success and then handing it off to another company, we didn't know if it was just going to end up in the remainder bin two weeks after it came out. [28]
People in the book world were starting to take notice because of course, if you've been to public school, you may remember the Scholastic Book Fairs and all of the Scholastic reps in the different schools were seeing me come to the schools and selling these books and hearing the kids talk about it. And it was getting attention. So we would have gotten a publisher, I would have gotten a publisher eventually. [34]
The book sold enough copies and bounced around enough that we'd heard that Scholasticâbecause Scholastic does all the Book Fairs in schools in the USâwas interested and that we might get an offer from them. Before that happened though... [34]
Eventually another author by the name of Carl Hiaasen ended up buying a copy of the self-published edition of Eragon in a local bookstore. Which now that I'm older, I'm rather shocked at because it takes a lot to get me to buy a self-published book. It's got to look really good. [35]
Carl Hiaasen wrote the young adult book Hoot as well as many adult books. He comes up to Montana, I think he's got a vacation home here in the valley, but he was up here fly fishing and he bought a copy of Eragon for his then 12 year old son, Ryan. And fortunately for me, Ryan liked the book and Carl recommended it to Random House and it sort of bounced around among the editors for a couple of months before my editor-to-be grabbed it and said, "Yes, we will. I want to take a chance on this teenage author and we're going to offer him money for a trilogy that only exists in his head and see what happens." [34]
How did you find an agent? We had the offer from Random House, and like two days later, we had the offer from Scholastic. And so we knew we didn't know what we didn't know. My dad participated in some online self-publishing forum sort of thing. So he posted up a question and said, look, this is the situation we're in. Does anyone have any advice? And another one of the members said, "well, I was just at this publishing writing conference and there was this young agent there and I was really impressed with his presentation, or him talking about the industry." So my dad got his information online and did what you're never supposed to do, which is he called the agent directly and left this long rambling voicemail message because it was lunchtime in New York and you take your lunch breaks in New York. And only at the end of the message did he say, "oh, yes, and by the way, we have two competing offers from two publishing houses." And when I asked him, I said, "why did you do that?" He said, "well, because if he's any good as an agent, he's going to listen to the whole message before he deletes it." And we found out later that he nearly deleted the message. Because my dad started off like, "I got this teenage son, and he's written this book", and yeah, that, OK. So it was like two hours later we got a call from Simon. And Simon said overnight me a copy of Eragon and if I like it I'll represent you. And Simon has been my agent for 21 years now. [34]
It was a big risk for Random House. And it was a big risk for me because the book was successful, self-published, and we knew that giving it to a publisher, you lose the rights to a degree, and most books don't turn a profit, and it could have just ended up in the remainder bin. So what really worked in my favor is that Random House, and specifically Random House Children's Books, and specifically the imprint of Knopf, which is where I'm at were looking for their own Harry Potter, essentially. Scholastic was publishing Harry Potter. And Scholastic also gave me an offer for Eragon, but I could tell that Random House was the one that really loved the book and Scholastic was doing it because they thought it was a good business opportunity. Scholastic actually offered more money than Random House. But I went with Random House and it was the right choice. And I found out after the fact that Chip Gibson who was the head of the children's department at the time basically chose to use Eragon as sort of something to rally the troops and put the entire children's division behind it, and I was the very fortunate recipient of that love and attention. Which of course would only get you so far if people didn't enjoy reading the book. But fortunately for me, they did a great job marketing it and then people actually enjoyed the book. Which is why when people ask me how to get published, it's like, what am I supposed to say? The answer ultimately is you write a book that people want to read, and that's a facile answer, but it is true. If people want to read it, it makes everything else easier. The agent wants you, the publishers want you, and ultimately the public wants you. [34]
And I didn't realize how much was behind that email, because large publishers do not just casually say, "hey, we want to publish your book". There was a whole plan there, and they had a plan. And so they did. Eragon came out and then I had to figure out how to write a book with everyone expecting the sequel. [36]
So you kind of went and peddled your books at schools, as I understand, right? It seems to have paid off though, because it eventually landed in the hands of bestselling author Carl Hiaasen, but not right away. First, your book got in the hands of his stepson, and the kid liked it so much that he told Hiaasen about it, who then got Eragon fast-tracked with Penguin Random House. I really admire the way that you went for the weakest links, manipulating the minds of our youth and using them to shill your book for you. It's a tried and true marketing strategy from Girl Scout Cookies to coupon books, and I applaud you for your ingenuity. My biggest question here is, do you pay Carl Hiaasen's stepson the agent royalties he so rightfully deserves? He tried to collect one time, but I had to hire a couple of guys to drive him off. But, no, you always go for the weakest link. Back when I was self-published and all that I even tried to get Eragon reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, so I called up the subscription number on the back of the magazine and told them I'd made a mistake and asked them to transfer me over to corporate, and managed to get right to their book reviewer and tried to talk him into reviewing Eragon. So you always go for, as you said, the weakest link. Which is corporate. Ryan, Carl's son, though, yeah, I probably owe him a ridiculous amount of royalties. I'd say so. He made you. Oh, he did, absolutely. Without him, I'd be nothing. I guess the lesson here for aspiring authors is that it's not really about finding your target audience, necessarily. You just have to find your target prolific author's stepson and let the kid take it from there. Yeah, absolutely. As I said, that's part of the nepotism package. The sort of networking inside the industry. This is the stuff that you can never access otherwise, and you'll never get published otherwise. So it's not like you can just grow up in the middle of nowhere in Montana, self-publish a book, and then just become a success, by promoting it. You have to have connections. That's genius. I think you could have had an incredible career in designing loot boxes for mobile games based on how good you are at manipulating the world. Absolutely, microtransactions are God's work. [31]
Gaining Confidence
Was anxiety something you felt moving to this deal with Random House? Was that quite pressuring? Yes, it was a big change to go from writing for yourself as a teenager, homeschooled, living in the middle of nowhere, to knowing that there was a large audience for your next book and that they had expectations. I got criticized quite a bit, critiqued quite a bit when Eragon came out for, shall we say, my lack of experience on the technical side of things with the writing. I'd say some of those were certainly fair critiques. The great advantage of youth is that you don't know how difficult things are and you have a lot of energy. The great disadvantage of youth is you don't have experience, and there's no fixing that aside from time and effort. All of that was definitely in my head when I really started work on Eldest and it was pretty nerve-wracking quite honestly. [28]
When you finished the book, I mean your parents believed in it obviously. Did you too? Or were you like, "You know what, maybe the second book, maybe go all in on the second one?" I didn't feel like I was actually an author until my third book was published. Because the first one, well, that could be a fluke. Well, the second one, yeah, but you know. But once the third book came out, then I was like, okay, maybe I'm actually a writer. But even then, even after I finished the series, I still felt like, okay, now I have to write something that's not Eragon, just to prove that I can. So every book has been its own challenge and has been a way for me to keep feeling like I'm growing as an artist and learning to become a better and better writer. [2]
It took me, I wanna say almost 10 years to feel like I wasn't an imposter and that it wasn't just gonna get yanked away. You know what my dream was when Eragon was was going to get published by Random House? Like this was my pie in the sky because I didn't think it was going to happen. But this was my dream. I did all the math and I was like, man, if I could somehow someday sell 100,000 books, which is impossible. But man, if I could sell 100,000 books, that's a darn good living. Man, I could really make a living off that. I could support a family and 100,000 books. Man, that'd be amazing. And then it kind of took off from there. [33]
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2024.05.19 15:00 Sir_David_Davidson More important than a woman's reaction to you is YOUR REACTION to their reaction!
Hi, David here!
Many inexperienced men believe that if they show interest, e.g. ask a girl out or try to kiss her, and the girl does not reciprocate, then it is game over.
The truth is that it all depends on your reaction to her reaction. If you go for the kiss and she turns her cheek to you, and you react by being hurt or overly apologetic, then it may likely be game over.
Same also goes if you get all sulky and butt-hurt if she turns you down for a date. But if you instead react by smiling, shrug it off, and continue the conversation as if nothing had happened, then your self-confidence may generate more attraction than if you had actually gotten what you wanted in the first place.
The most important thing when it comes to asking someone out is to do so in a low pressure way where you communicate to the other person that you will not be upset if they say no.
The longer you wait to ask someone out, the more likely it is that you will become more invested in the relationship's outcome. This will only make it harder for you to remain cool and nonreactive when interacting with the person. So quit putting it off and go for it already!
BTW, I just finished putting together my dating advice eBook "How to Date Any Girl" version 4.0 and would LOVE to get some honest feedback from you! I decided to give it away for free for the time being.
The eBook is 27 pages long and gives you a practical step-by-step solution to meeting women (15+ years of knowledge put into it).
You can get the eBook by
clicking here!
This book is the result of going out and socializing with girls for over a decade. I have put in there all the fundamentals I have learned over that time so I would really appreciate all the feedback I could get!!
What are your thoughts? Do you have any tips to add? Let's discuss in the comments :) Thanks for reading and have a GREAT day!
David Davidson
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2024.05.19 14:51 Hungry_Nihilist On 1L: Reflections of an average non-traditional First Generation Rising 3L
This post is specifically crafted to assist incoming law students who may be experiencing anxiety about their first year in law school. It aims to provide guidance and reassurance, addressing common concerns and offering practical advice.
I'm not an overachiever in law school; I'm about as average a student as possible. So, if you are one of those perfectionist students, this probably isn't for you
Feel free to add your own!
Reflection 1 - I did a lot of research on what I needed to prepare before 1L started, but the most helpful thing I learned was how to take a test, but you need to know when to do them. You can't take practice tests until much later in the semester (taking practice tests early without learning all the materials is pointless and an exercise in futility), so when you study, work on hypotheticals involving the subject matter you are learning. If you work on practice tests too early, you might burn up all the available practice tests. Some teachers only have 1 or 2 available for students to review. This means you will only have more to practice when you need it most at the end of the semester. You can still IRAC hypo's and get your practice in that way when studying.
Reflection 2 - Do all the practice tests or as many as possible. This means something other than sitting down for 4 hours and cranking out five tests. I suggest doing at least two complete tests (or however you feel comfortable with), outlining your answers for the other tests, and reviewing the answer guides if they are provided to you. In order to outline an answer, I would identify the issue and the rule I would need to use, then maybe write a few sentences on how I'd attack the analysis (Do this to avoid burnout essentially; 4 hours of tests are draining). Understanding the types of questions that can appear on old tests lets you know the testable issues you might encounter on the exam. I also write down how often I see particular issues; it helps narrow down what you would need to include in your outlines.
Reflection 3âYou only really need rules and tests to answer exam questions. All the other stuff is fluff. Ensure your analysis covers your arguments' strengths and weaknesses, and you'll be fine.
Reflection 4 - (Specifically for your first year) Read! Read! Read! During your first semester, you should spend most of your time studying and reading. Learning how to read case law is a skill, but once you understand what you are looking at when reading cases, the process goes a lot faster. Be sure to get caught up on reading before the last month. YOU WON'T SURVIVE (I mean you will but your life will genuinely suck).
Reflection 5âEveryone in law school is an acquaintance. Some might be friendlier than others, but everyone is an acquaintance. If you approach your relationships in law school as a business professional, you'll be fine. If you are a guy, don't try to fuck everything that moves, it's not a good look and nothing spreads faster than news of the section fuck boy.
Reflection 6 - If you don't get straight A's, it's not the end of the world. Do what you need to do to get a job in the summer and bust your ass when you get that job. Work hard in any job you have in law school. Make yourself available to do things around the office, and always tell your supervisor what you would like to improve on when you start a position. For example, in my 1L summer job, I told my supervisors I wanted to get better at drafting motions. Over ten weeks, I left my 1L summer job with five good writing samples, including one I wrote for the big boss at the firm.
Good luck to all incoming law students! As long as you put in some effort, you will do fine.
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2024.05.19 14:50 theswillmerchant The Great Serpent, The Formless Mother, and The Blood Star
The Great Serpent, The Formless Mother, and The Blood Star I believe that the Great Serpent of Mt. Gelmir and The Formless Mother are related through Red Glintstone and The Blood Star. The nature of their relationship is unclear at this time, and although I have a theory I will not make any claim of certainty. Still, I think there is strong evidence that they share some significant ties to one another, and these connections lead to some interesting questions/observations about the nature of the Outer Gods.
Before I start I should acknowledge that:
- This gameâs lore is often purposefully obtuse and itâs extremely difficult to say anything concrete.
- While mechanics and lore interact really well in Fromsoft games, sometimes a mechanic exists because itâs fun and cool, and not because it reveals some deeper truth about the story.
- I am not an Elden Ring Lore expert. I am also not a real life anthropologist, historian, writer, or anything else that would give me any real insight into these games and their lore or themes. I just think this stuff is neat.
Red Glintstone and The Blood Star With that out of the way, letâs begin by talking about Red Glintstone. Most of the information about it comes from a few items, The Staff of the Guilty and Alberichâs Set. The Staff of the Guilty is a staff wielded by Thorn Sorcerers, found in certain areas of Liurnia and the Mountaintops of the Giants. The Thorn Sorcerers are criminals who have been punitively blinded with briars, and placed into servitude as soldiers under the Fire Monks. An excellent
video by SmoughTown (which I will reference heavily from this point on) goes into much greater detail on the nature of these aberrant mages.
Alberichâs Set is the clothing of Mad Tongue Alberich, a former servant of the Roundtable Hold and heretical sorcerer. Most players will encounter him when he invades on the ground floor of the Roundtable, however his set is acquired from the Roundtableâs physical counterpart, the Fortified Manor in Leyndell.
The Staff of the Guilty reads:
âA heretical staff fashioned from a smoldering, withered sapling that turns the blood of sacrifices pierced by it into glintstone. Similar to hex magic.
Sorceries are scaled with faith rather than intelligence when wielding this staff which enhances Thorn sorceries in particular.â
Alberichâs Set (specifically the robe) reads:
âMad Tongue Alberich's robe.
Set with red glintstones said to be formed by the blood of sacrifices. Strengthens thorn sorcery.
Alberich was an aloof yet disturbed heretical sorcerer said to have been driven mad by jeering tongues during his service to the Roundtable Hold long ago.â
What we learn from these items is that Red Glintstone is a form of Glintstone created from the blood of sacrifices. This is an odd property for any type of Glintstone to possess, since all other sources of information surrounding Glintstone imply that it is heavily related to the Stars and the Primeval Current, not something as terrestrial as blood.
The beginnings of an explanation for this come from the descriptions of two spells, namely those used by the Thorn Sorcerers and Alberich himself. These spells are called Briars of Sin and Briars of Punishment which read:
âAn aberrant sorcery discovered by exiled criminals. Theirs are the sorceries most reviled by the academy.
Wounds the caster with thorns of punishment, sending a trail of bloodthorns running over the ground to impale enemies from belowâŚ
The guilty, their eyes gouged by thorns, lived in eternal darkness. There, they discovered the blood star.â
So the Blood Star seems to be a celestial body that appears to the guilty after they are blinded. Again, SmoughTownâs video goes into great detail on this topic, but the brief summary is that it is an entity in and of itself, as many stars appear to be within Elden Ringâs cosmology. It is also the source of the astral properties necessary for a stone formed of blood to function as Glintstone. Through a combination of faith in this entity, bodily sacrifice, and this specific variant of Glintstone, aberrant magic can be wielded.
Another possible mention of the Blood Star, though less direct, comes from the description of the Great Stars weapon:
âHuge bludgeon with three stars at the striking end. Though primarily a striking weapon, the stars' spikes cause blood loss.
A blood-stained star is an ill omen, a fact not lost upon those against whom this weapon is brought to bear. Landing attacks slightly restores HP.â
The phrasing of this âill omenâ, along with its ability to restore HP, will become relevant later.
The Formless Mother A logical leap that many people have taken when researching these topics is to assume that the Blood Star is in some way related to The Formless Mother, the Outer God that bestows blood-related power to Mohg and his followers. At the risk of sounding repetitive, SmoughTown again explores this relationship, noting their similarities mechanically (the fact that magic from these sources causes the Hemorrhage/Blood Loss status effect) and thematically (the fact that both of these entities seem to seek bloodshed, demanding sacrifices explicitly or wounds generally). He does however say that there are enough differences in the information known about these figures to cast some doubt on them being one and the same. I agree with this, however I do still believe they are related in a way that I will discuss after mentioning the other source of Red Glintstone present in the game.
The Great Serpent of Mt. Gelmir In the war ravaged landscape of Mt. Gelmir stands Volcano Manor, home of Praetor Rykard. Within this fortified castleâs prison town are the Man-Serpents, the results of a blasphemous breeding process who patrol and defend against intruders. And one particular man-serpent wields a staff, the Gelmir Glintstone Staff.
âStaff with a forked tip, embedded with red glintstones. Enhances lava sorceries.
The Man-Serpents of Mt. Gelmir draw from faith in addition to intelligence to enhance the potency of their sorcery.â
Once again we see Red Glintstone used in a spell catalyst, and again it imbues this tool with properties reliant on faith. For further detail, we need to look at some of the aforementioned Lava Sorceries that are enhanced by this staff.
Magma Shot reads:
âOne of the sorceries developed from the magma of Mt. Gelmir. âŚ
After discovering the ancient hexes of Gelmir, Rykard, son of Queen Rennala, brought them back into practical use as new forms of sorcery.â
These sorceries are ancient, originally practiced by the adherents of a pagan religion that worshiped the Great Serpent of Mt. Gelmir. The timeline of events is not explicit, but it is a reasonable assumption that Rykard's incorporation of these hexes into modern sorcery was a component of his adoption of the ancient Gelmir religion, and his worship and great sacrifice to the Serpent.
In addition, the practices of the Gelmir Pagans provide another tie between Red Glintstone and ritual sacrifice. The Serpent-Godâs Curved Sword says:
âCurved sword fashioned in the image of an ancient serpent deity and tool of a forgotten religion practiced on Mt. Gelmir.
Formerly used to offer up sacrifices, this sword restores HP upon slaying an enemy.â
These sacrifices are likely the source of the Red Glintstone used to channel the magic of Mt. Gelmir.
The Connections Red Glintstone therefore ties together the Thorn Sorceries, and by extension the Blood Star, with the Gelmir magics. If you agree with the idea that the Blood Star and the Formless Mother are also related, then this also bridges together the followers of Rykard and Mohg. But Red Glintstone is not the only commonality between these factions and practices.
In no particular order:
Both Gelmir Sorceries and the Staff of the Guilty mention âHex Magicâ. Along with this being a nod to Dark Souls 2âs magic system, this language seems to distinguish these schools of magic from other Sorceries or Incantations. In particular, it groups both of these into a class of magic deemed heretical by current magic practitioners.
As mentioned above, both the Gelmir Religion and the Blood Star explicitly mention sacrifices as a source of their power.
Both Thorn Sorceries and many of the skills of the Formless Mother require a tithe of the userâs blood to be paid. Thorn Sorceries and the skills Seppuku, Bloody Slash, and Blood Blade deal damage to the caster in addition to their enemies, incorporating the thematic idea of sacrifice into gameplay mechanics.
Again speaking mechanically, both the Formless Mother and the Great Serpent offer their adherents methods of healing via combat. The Blasphemous Blade, Serpent-Godâs Curved Sword, Devourerâs Scepter, Takerâs Cameo, and Rykardâs Great Rune are all holy artifacts of the Gelmir Religion, either from the ancient era or from Rykardâs. Critically, they all confer the power of healing by defeating enemies, or simply by attacking them in the case of the Blasphemous Blade and Devourerâs Scepter weapon skills. While there are a few other methods of achieving this effect scattered amongst the factions of the Lands Between, one of the most notable practitioners is Mohg, who uses his Sacred Spear to heal himself with his Bloodboon Ritual. It is worth noting that one of the only other ways to achieve the effect of healing via combat is with the Great Stars, providing another possible tie between these groups. Here I will acknowledge that this line of reasoning does not include the Greathorn Hammer, Butchering Knife, Assassinâs Crimson Dagger, or Maleniaâs Great Rune, the other notable examples of this type of mechanic. For those curious, I believe that Maleniaâs healing is at least partially explained by VaatiVidya in his
video on the topic. Vaati is a small up-and-coming lore channel and Iâm sure the little guy could really use a like and a sub!
Perhaps most significantly though are the Recusant Finger and Bloody Finger items. These items, bestowed to the player after joining the ranks of Rykard and Mohgâs cults respectively, are functionally identical tools that allow invasions of other playersâ worlds. Both are used for the express purpose of spilling Tarnished blood, and I do not believe it is a coincidence that they are related to the two demigods in question.
Bringing It Together Given these threads connecting The Formless Mother, the Blood Star, and the Gelmir religion, what is the nature of their relationship? There seems to be a developing theme of "Similar but Different". There is, in my opinion, a sense that these cultures and practices share some kind of common ancestry. Again, while I donât feel confident enough to state it with certainty, I will provide a possible explanation informed, ironically, by the Greater Will.
Most mentions of stars in the gameâs text come from sources that are associated with the Glintstone, the Astrologers, Raya Lucaria, Astel, etc. However there is at least one mention of a star that sheds some light on their relationship to Outer Gods, the description of Elden Stars:
âThis legendary incantation is the most ancient of those that derive from the Erdtree.
âŚ
It is said that long ago, the Greater Will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the Lands Between, which would later become the Elden Ring.â
Itâs worth noting here that a topic often discussed by lore enthusiasts is the voice of the narrator in item descriptions, and the fact that it seems to change between items and vary in its reliability. For instance, rather than saying anything with concrete certainty here, it reads âIt is saidâŚâ implying there is something apocryphal about the information. It is also worth mentioning that this description in particular is infamous in the community for muddying the waters on the nature of the Elden Ring, inscriptions found in Farum Azula, the timeline of the Lands Between, and many other topics.
Still, if we take this description at face value then it seems to imply that stars, along with being entities themselves, are within the dominion of Outer Gods and can be sent to the Lands Between âbearing beastsâ. Another item that relates ephemeral Outer Gods to corporeal creatures is the Twinbird Kite Shield:
âShield featuring a vividly painted twinbird.
The twinbird is said to be the envoy of an outer god, and mother of the Deathbirds...â
Once again a presumably physical beast, the Twinbird, is said to be the envoy of an unnamed Outer God. If these two items represent a trend, then we can assume that Outer Gods have the ability to install âBeastsâ in the Lands Between. The reason for this is unclear. They may be sent as sentient weapons to fight in proxy wars. Itâs also possible that they are intended to be physical manifestations of the Outer Gods to spur worship. Thanks to the existence of the Two and Three Fingers, the Fire Giant, and Malenia, there is no shortage of evidence that the Outer Gods either require avatars in the Lands Between to communicate for them and exert their will, or at the very least prefer an indirect relationship for unknowable reasons. Regardless, it leads me to propose a theory:
The Theory The Formless Mother, an Outer God, controled the Blood Star. This star was sent long before the current age to deliver a beast to the Lands Between, and this beast was the Great Serpent. Whether simply due to great expanses of time, the dominance of the Greater Will and the subsequent shunning of other Outer Gods, or some other reason that is left undiscovered, the link connecting these entities became faded, if not severed entirely. As a result, their once cohesive goals and principles diverged. The wounds craved by the Formless Mother became the sacrifices of sinners offered to the Blood Star, and the sacrificial practices of the Gelmir worshippers no longer satisfied the Serpent, now driven by world consuming avarice. These once cohesive forces were now fragmented, fated to fade into relative obscurity. Each sought new adherents in the sewers below the Erdtree, in the mountains overlooking it, and in the sinners exiled from it. The faithful of each deity created their own manner of worship, similar but different. This process can be observed in countless real world cultures who share common ancestry but diverge into discrete civilizations or religions. I believe that this explains the overlap between these seemingly disparate factions, while also accounting for their clear separation. Fromsoft has proven time and time again to be a team obsessed with the layering of culture and the echos of half-forgotten history, and I feel that this is yet another example of this theme.
I will say again that I am far from certain of this, as obviously there is no direct evidence of the Blood Star being "sent", but I believe strongly that some relationship of this type exists between these groups. I hope that with the DLC looming we may be given more information about the ancient era of the Lands Between and the various religions and cultures that existed prior to the dominance of Marika's Golden Order, but knowing Fromsoft I think itâs likely weâll get more questions than answers.
Epilogue If youâve read this entire thing then the toilet seat is likely cutting off the circulation to your legs and you should stand up, but I greatly appreciate your time. Please let me know what you think of this theory, or if thereâs anything you think Iâve misinterpreted or left out entirely.
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2024.05.19 14:48 Alternative-Gur1381 [F4A] Fantasy Slow Burn Romance
Hey, this is my first time looking for a role play partner on reddit. I usually RP in a forum based on a book series (what I still do) but I wanted to look for someone I can try out some other ideas with.
About the plots I'm looking foI prefer to play: I only play females and am searching for someone playing male roles. If you are a man in real life doesn't matter to me. Woman playing men are also very welcome. :) I'm generally open for most plots in a medieval fantasy setting that include a slow burn romance and drama, but especially recently I thought about a plot in the Harry Potter universe regarding Severus Snape (you) and an OC (me). I have about a million ideas about who the OC could be and how Sev and her could get in touch and about when the play starts (before the waafter it/before lily's death/etc.). I think we will be able to work on a great plot together. I want to add that I didn't read the books, just watched the films and I wouldn't see the fandoms too strict. Just as a loose environment. No limit to our fantasy! But as I said, other ideas can be discussed too, also about completely self invented worlds with OCs only or other fandoms that I know good enough to play within.
About my writing preferences: I am very flexible in my writing, the only thing that's a no go for me is the star-style coughs. So third person, first person, past, present whatever you like. But generally I prefer novel style writing. The length of posts should be more than a few sentences but it doesn't have to be a bible every time. It depends on the post you are answering to, sometimes there is more to react and sometimes not. I am German but my English is good enough to RP in it (already did) and if we choose the HP idea I would even prefer English as language to write in. The platform where we write is free for you to choose. I've already written RP in forums, in Facebook messenger, in WhatsApp, in Google docs or discord (well WhatsApp is not a platform where I would RP with strangers but I guess that's obviously).
About me and what I expect from an RP partner: I am 23 years old, a student, a bookworm and cat mom. I do RP for about 10 years now, maybe a little longer already so I've got a lot of experience. Though I love drama in RP, I hate it in RL, I'm a very harmonic and peace loving person.
I'm looking for someone who is 18 years or older. As I said, gender doesn't matter as long as you play the male role. I don't care if you don't have much experience in RP yet or if you are not the best most literate writer, as long as you have a good grammar and spelling. More important for me is that you have ideas and as much fun as I have doing RP. We can improve our writing together while having fun with interesting stories. And fun also means that there is no pressure to answer quickly. I usually answer at least once within a week, sometimes more but I am totally okay with waiting longer. It's a hobby and it should be fun and no one should feel pressured or stressed to answer just because the last post was already long ago.
So, in Germany we say "Halbe Bibel, ganzer Hurensohn" and with that I end this probably way to long post. If you are interested in having an RP with me, send me a message (if that's possible, sorry, I really don't know how reddit works lol) or write a comment or something. Just try to contact me, then we will see if it fits and talk about anything else that is relevant to get started.
Cheers
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2024.05.19 14:35 Zone55X [Online][5e][Other]Player Driven Time loop Mystery looking for two new players.
A Map of the Setting https://www.worldanvil.com/w/ullthwaygon-zone55x/map/34fdce88-c8be-462e-91c6-232271f3ea4d A Link to the Worlds Wiki https://www.worldanvil.com/w/ullthwaygon-zone55x đ Into
Hello we are a group of creatives looking for up to two new players/friends/collaborators to join us for the next leg of our adventure.
đ˛ The Game
With an impending disaster large on the horizon; Our band of misfits are on a countdown to find out what is coming and most importantly how to stop it. And may then they can finally regain their memories.
đ Featuring...
- A player-driven narrative in a deep and open world filled with mysteries to solve and many you may never find.
- A group of people who support each other's work and hang out outside of game time.
- A living setting where time progresses outside of your view! With distractions from your goals offering many rewards but risking being sent in crucial events.
- Rewards both for quick thinking and dedication to picking up clues to mysteries setup long in advance.
- A story with an ending! With the history of the lands you travel through likely being in your hands.
- The chance to play anything you want! With over 40 new player species to try out there is almost certainly something that fits your plans, And if that is not the case one can be made with you in mind!
- A completely different roster of monsters and adversaries that make use of devilish mechanics to challenge you over raw strength and hitpoints.
âď¸ Requirements
- Must be at least two decades in age.
- Have a fairly decent microphone setup.
- Are able to comfortably make the timeslot.
â° Scheduling
The game is currently running bi-weekly on Tuesdays at the following times with some degree of flexibility.
UK - Evening | US - Miday/Afternoon |
BST: 8pm | EDT: 3pm / CDT: 2pm / PDT: 12pm |
âď¸ Application
- Just drop me a comment below to register your interest
- Then send me a link to something creative that you have made.
This does not have to be finished and can take the form of anything creative new or old, from writing on the side of a boat to a sculpture made of old rule books. So long as it holds creative passion and you have made it yourself without the use of generative AI.
Feel free to send it to me either privately or in the comments below :)
After this we will pick up to two people to hop onto a quick meetup tomorrow evening to check vibes and hopefully plan out your dramatic entrance to the game this Tuesday!
đ Outro
And this it! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!
If you have any questions please let me know in the comments and me or my friend will do our best to answer them.
And if you are feeling generous please make sure to give this post an upvote as it really helps people find it :)
All the best and happy gaming,
Zone :)
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Zone55X to
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2024.05.19 14:33 Akza-3 Despite having a good career Iâm quite stupid really. Iâm almost certain Iâm at least neurodivergent. Any advice on where I go from here?
Please understand Iâm not looking for sympathy and before people start saying âyouâre not stupidâ âhow can you say that about yourselfâ Iâve literally been called stupid by friends, classmates, and family since I was 4 years old. Iâm in my early 30s now and can say Iâve without doubt done stupid things so I donât want to hear people say I shouldnât call myself and idiot when I am. I feel like Iâm a functioning person with no common sense whatsoever causing me to get by in life while being a complete idiot along the way.
Now, having said that I managed to get by in school, despite my stupidity and I obtained overall average grades. Afterwards I went university and graduated with a below average marks but admittedly this was due to me doing literally no work when I was in university. I pretty much spent at a push 10% of my time studying. Foolish I know and was doing a challenging degree.
Despite that set back I pursued a career in banking and so far earn above the London average salary. Things on paper donât actually seem to be bad right? Yet I do stupid things from time to time. In addition to this my memory is bad, particularly my short term memory. Itâs caused me humiliation over the years and even as of recent. It makes me so depressed when I think of all the dumb things Iâve done over the years and feel like Iâd be the happiest person in the world if not for my stupidity. I feel like Iâd be sooo much more confident in myself if not for my stupidity. Below are some examples of the stupid and weird things Iâve done over the years:
1) Bad memory - will do something and forget a couple mins later at times; like forgetting the number of the locker I put my gym clothes in, when I was learning to drive I kept forgetting the basics such as putting the handbrake fully down. There are times where Iâd forbid myself to say something only to stupidly say it a few minutes later. - there are more examples I could use but simply put this is my primary issue and itâs gotten a little worse as Iâve gotten older.
2) Sometimes I canât hear things properly- Iâll hear words but not the right words forming at times - but this maybe happens a handful of times a year if that. Not an everyday thing at all but nonetheless still a problem.
3) Forgetting to open the wine bottle cap before pouring into the glass a few times on dates.
4) Not knowing that paracetamol could be classed as a painkiller. Always just referred to it as medicine.
5) Sometimes Iâll read something then temporarily forget it. E.g. on someoneâs Instagram post a woman said she was having a boy. In the subsequent post showing the birth of her baby for some reason I thought it would be a girl just because the pictures looked like it would be one.
6) Only recently classing coffee as a hot drink. For whatever reason i classed hot drinks as hot lemonade or hot versions of any other forms of fruit juice.
7) Didnât realise âcuppaâ meant coffee for some reason. Whilst I was familiar with the phrase cuppa coffee for some reason if someone just said âcuppaâ Iâd be a little puzzled.
8) As a child I was known for throwing a ball and doing pushups weirdly. - maybe this was an early sign of poor motor skills?
I think you guys get the idea, Iâm an idiot. I could list so much more examples but donât want this turning into a long winded essay.
In addition to the above Iâve always struggled with concentration, distractibility and of course poor memory which makes me think I have ADD or maybe some form of dyspraxia.
As mentioned above Iâm not seeking sympathy or attention I just want straightforward answers on how I can get better and whether the above examples could be linked to a form of learning disability. I just want to get better and potentially receive treatment via the NHS.
Thanks
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Akza-3 to
Neurodivergent [link] [comments]
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