I’ve made similar post to this sub before, and people argued me down saying I was either trolling, or just an idiot if I believed Trump to be innocent. At some point people have to wake up and realize what’s going on.
Put your political view to the side for a second, understand that what the media does to Trump isn’t right. The lies are apart of politics, but the lies that are told on trump is just out right ridiculous.
People actually convinced themselves that Trump was responsible for Jan 6. Fast forward to 2023, people have now deluded themselves to thinking that Trump will be going to jail this week.
At what point do these false narratives stop? When will Trump go to jail? Today? Tomorrow? Next week? 2024? Come on people, stop believing the propaganda. This man hasn’t done anything wrong and his freedom will continue to prove that. No matter your political view, you have to be on the side of right. Don’t allow your political view persuade you to think that people should be punished for things they haven’t even done.

So I'm wondering if anyone has any tips/experience with something like this. For context I'm a Asset Protection Captain working for Macy's. I work by myself primarily. (My manager who is a multi store manager so she's not there often. Maybe once or twice a week). I work in California, SoCal area. I'm a male detective (this is relevant to our policies on fitting room cases).
Here's the problem: I have an adult female who is in my store roughly every other day/every few days. She is in the store for anywhere between 2 to 8 hours, usually averaging about 5 hours. She comes in with a large suitcase which has gotten all the colleagues and myself to start calling her "Suitcase Lady". Most days she'll sit in the store and just loiter for hours. I have had reports that two separate customers have seen her concealing merch on the floor and reported it to managers. She has also waited to go into fitting rooms until after closing. From what I can gather is when she does it's only for one or two items at a time in fitting room (fitting room policy on both number of items and gender makes this hard to get progress on this front) and even if she does she'll still stay in the store for hours after possibly hitting.
For a while I was doing surveillance on her with no luck. At this point I'm just ignoring the issue unless it's quiet and I can watch her or I have nothing else to do. It seems that she is concealing on the floor (have yet to see it) and in fitting rooms. At this point I don't have the time or resources to keep trying to chase this down.
Thoughts? It really feels like there isn't much I can do at this point. I feel like if I keep watching her I might catch a lucky break and get something substantial, but like I said my resources are limited.

I'm running 2x 4k & 1x 1080p ReoLink cameras on my home server. Windows 2019, Dell T5810 - 10 core Xeon, 64GB DDR4 ECC RAM.
My setup is as follows: Reolink client installed on the C drive (SSD) Recording to E drive (18TB HDD)
However - there is a constant 5 mb per second write to the C drive that does not occur when the client is closed, or recording is disabled. 5mbps constant write, in addition to the usual OS drive overheads equates to over 400gb of writes per day - going to a drive that isn't even storing the footage. Given the C drive is flash based, it is not going to last long with the constant writes before consuming the specced TBW.
I'm not even sure why the activity is showing on the C drive but I've monitored it using crystaldisk and it's getting absolutely hammered with writes - I can't find any temp folder or where it's writing to. I can see when a file is finished recording (reached 30mins) it then transfers it to the E drive/HDD. This isn't like anything I've ever come across with CCTV systems - they usually write directly to wherever they're pointed, not using the C drive as a cache.
Any advice please? My experience with ReoLink has not been great so far, I'm only using the client because the cameras run so poorly using BlueIris...

I have been having an issue where I can't save my clips because instant replay is turned off. I noticed recently that when I turn it on, it instantly turns off. I started seeing what applications I had open and determined that when I close Vivaldi, it starts to work again. Does anyone have a solution? This really sucks because Vivaldi is the best browser I have used so far.

The Golden Candlestick

Jesus the Light of the World

Exodus 25:31, 37 You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece. … You shall make seven lamps for it, and they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it.
As you entered the sanctuary, on the south side to your left would be a seven branched candlestick made entirely of a single piece of solid gold. The apostle John was granted a vision of heaven where he saw the reality of which the golden candlestick was but a shadow. In vision John saw Jesus walking among seven candlesticks.
Revelation 1:12-13 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
Jesus explains to John the meaning of what he saw.
Revelation 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.
The number seven in the Bible denotes a complete number. The earthly candlestick and its seven branches, each holding a lamp, represented God’s church on earth. The church of Christ is the lamp stand which in this world lifts up Jesus, who is the Lamp, the Light, of this world. Individually, the Christian, to the extent that the life of Jesus shines through him, is also a light to the world – but always the light is the light of Jesus.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The lamps in the earthly sanctuary were to burn continually. So the Christian is to always let the Spirit of God rule in his life, thus becoming living lamps through which the light of God shines forth in this dark world.
Only the High Priest could perform the sacred work of lighting the lamps in the earthly sanctuary. He trimmed the wicks and lighted the lamps every morning and evening. And so, none other than Jesus, our High Priest, can trim our lamps. In the morning we need His Spirit to direct us during the day. In the evening we need His Spirit to enlighten our minds as we review the work of the day. Only Jesus can trim away the faults and flaws of our lives. The trimming of the lamps is a type of the daily lessons we must learn from Jesus our High Priest.
In and of ourselves we have no light, and whatever light we may think we have in ourselves, if it is not of Jesus it is in reality deepest darkness.

The Table of Showbread

Jesus the Bread of Life

Exodus 25:23-25, 30 You shall also make a table of acacia wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around. You shall make for it a frame of a handbreadth all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. … And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always.
As you entered the sanctuary the table of showbread would have been to your right, on the north side of the sanctuary. On the Sabbath day the Levites made twelve loaves or cakes of unleavened bread. These cakes were placed on the table hot each Sabbath day, and arranged in two rows or piles – six to a row, with pure frankincense on each row.
These twelve loaves would lay on the table for the entire week, only being removed when twelve fresh loaves replaced them on the table the following Sabbath. These loaves are called “the bread of the presence.” Once the old loaves were removed, they were then eaten by the priests. All the service with the table of showbread was done on the Sabbath. The bread was prepared on the Sabbath and placed hot on the table on the Sabbath. The following Sabbath it was removed and eaten by the priest on that Sabbath.
The Priests, the Bible tells us, served “unto the example and shadow of heavenly things;” therefore there is a heavenly lesson for us in the showbread.
The showbread was a continual offering before the Lord. It taught that man was wholly dependent upon God for both natural and spiritual food.
This, like all other types of the sanctuary service, met its fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus is the true bread of presence. Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh.” Jesus went on to say, “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man … you have no life in you.” To explain Himself, Jesus goes on to say;
John 6:51-53, 63 It is the spirit that quickened; the flesh profited nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” The Word of God, the Holy Bible is the true bread of which we are to eat.
As the bread of the presence of God was taken from the sanctuary and distributed to the priests to be eaten, so Jesus said;
John 14:24 The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
The Word of God, the Bible came direct from God. God gave it to Jesus. Jesus signified it by His angels unto the prophets, and the prophets gave it to the people. (Revelation 1:1).
We must feed on the Word of God. And there is no more appropriate time to let God speak to us through His word than on the Sabbath day, when we lay aside all worldly cares and business, and take the time to read and study and pray upon His Holy Word until we hear God speak to us through it.
The priests were not only to set the hot bread on the table on the Sabbath day, but later that same bread by being eaten was to become a part of their very being. Even so, we need to eat of the Word of God until it becomes a part of our very being. Here is the secret of true Christian living. Eternal life does not come to us through forms and ceremonies. They are alright in their place. But eternal life results from feeding upon the Bread of Life, the true bread that comes from Heaven.

The Altar of Incense

Jesus our Righteousness

Exodus 30:1-3, 6 You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width-it shall be square-and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around. … And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you.
As you entered the sanctuary you would have seen the Altar of Incense on the far end of that first chamber of the sanctuary, sitting directly in front of the veil that divided the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant sat.
The incense burned on the Altar was composed of an equal weight of four fragrant gums and resins and was to be used only by the priest on this Altar. It was very sacred and anyone who made for their own use anything like it was to be cut off from among the people.
The High priest alone was to perform the sacred duty of placing the incense before the Lord on the Altar of Incense.
This Altar and the incense burned upon it were designed to be a type of the work that Jesus, our great High Priest is performing for us. The apostle John in vision saw the heavenly reality of which the earthly service was a type. John in vision witnessed the incense being offered burned on the heavenly Altar.
Revelation 8:3-4 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.
John saw the incense being mingled with the prayers of the saints. He saw those prayers, after the incense was added, ascend up before God, and they were accepted because they were made fragrant with the incense. Here we see the work of the Holy Spirit, taking the weak and feeble prayers of sinful men, and presenting them perfect before a Holy God.
Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
The Holy Spirit takes our faulty prayers and presents them perfect before the Father mingled with the sweet incense of Christ’s perfect righteousness.
When Jesus was preparing His disciples for when He would ascend to heaven, Jesus assured them, “Whatsover you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.” (John 16:23).
The power in a name is in the character of the individual that bears the name. The name of Jesus is honored in Heaven, and every prayer presented in that name is granted in heaven because Jesus’ perfect life is the incense that is presented before the Father with our prayers. Jesus lived a sinless life. He “knew no sin.” The prince of this world, the devil, had nothing in Jesus, for He was pure and holy, without one stain of sin. It is Christ’s perfect righteousness that makes our prayers accepted before the Father.
John saw the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascend up before God. Our prayers, made fragrant by the righteousness of Christ our Savior, are presented by the Holy Spirit to the Father. The weakest saint who knows how to press before the Throne of Grace in the name of Jesus, the sinless One, has all the resources of heaven at his command.
The name of Jesus is often added to prayers in a meaningless way. Many prayers are spoken for a mere form of worship and go no higher than the ceiling – but every prayer of faith reaches the ear of God, and that prayer is presented perfect in Christ’s righteousness before the Father by the Holy Spirit.
David understood what was typified by the incense and prayed;
Psalm 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
There was no part of the daily ministration in the earthly service that brought the priest so directly into the presence of God as the offering of the incense. There above the veil, before which the Altar of Incense stood, could be seen the glow of the Shekinah Glory, the literal visible presence of God, that rested above the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. Likewise, there is no part of our religious service that brings us so close to God as the pouring out of our hearts in earnest prayer.
In the heavenly sanctuary Jesus, our High Priest has an inexhaustible supply of righteousness. In the type, the incense was always ascending, typifying that at any time, day or night, when a struggling soul cries out for help, or give thanks and praise, his prayer is heard.
In the typical work, the one who attempted to use this incense for their own use was cut off for among the people of God. There was to be no imitation of the incense. No fire was to be used for burning the incense except that taken from the altar before the Lord. Nadab and Abihu, while drunk, offered “strange fire” before the Lord, and were slain. (Leviticus 10:1-10).
Their fate is an object lesson of all who fail to appreciate the perfect righteousness of Jesus, and who appear before the Lord in the “filthy rags” of their own righteousness. (Isaiah 64:6).
The horns of the Altar of Incense were often touched with the blood of the sin offering, thus typifying that it is Christ’ death that made it possible for our prayers to be answered and for us to be clothed in His righteousness.
The fragrance of the incense was carried by the wind to all the surrounding area. In a like manner, when a Christian is clothed in Christ’s righteousness, an influence will go out from him to all those around him. A savor of life and light to all who are in darkness.

The Ark of the Covenant

Jesus our Advocate

After God instructed Moses to build a sanctuary, the very first instruction the Lord gave was:
Exodus 25:10-1 And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around.
The cover of the ark was called the mercy seat and was made of a single piece of pure gold. On either end of the mercy seat, and of one piece with it, were cherubim with their wings stretched out covering the ark.
Exodus 25:17-18 You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
It is what was to be placed inside the ark that made the ark the most important item in the sanctuary. There, inside the Ark were the Ten Commandments which God Himself had engraved on stone.
Exodus 25: 21-22 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
The Lord Himself covered the law that man had broken with a mercy seat, and above the mercy seat shown the Shekinah Glory, the literal visible presence of God on earth.
The mercy seat, with the Shekinah Glory, the visible representation of God’s presence, and its covering cherubim, is the figure, or “shadow” of the Judgment seat, the throne of God. Here, God’s perfect mercy and perfect justice meet in perfect harmony.
The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. The law demands the death of the sinner. And as the law is as holy as the God who gave them, (for every transgression of the law is a transgression against who gave them), only one equal with God could meet the demands of the law on man’s behalf. In the typical service the blood of a sacrifice was sprinkled above the mercy seat which covered the broken law. This was representative of the blood of Christ which would free every repentant sinner from the demands of the law. Jesus Himself having met the full demands of the law on man’s behalf.
However, the mercy seat is more than just a representation of the judgment throne, it is also representative, as its name implies, of the throne of grace. Look again at Exodus 25:21 concerning the mercy seat.
Exodus 25:21 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
He says, “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat.” If we are truly Christ’s, then that privilege is also ours. We are told that as Christians we may come boldly to the throne of grace.
Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
If indeed we are Christ’s we do not need to fear the judgment throne, for to us that throne is a throne of grace.
By EjmMissouri
To be Continued

I'm proud Mom to a wonderful and adorable baby boy. Perhaps this is due to all the time at home, but I'm starting to fret a bit. I have never been a boy, and I only had a sister growing up.
I do think gender is mostly a social construct, and love some stereotypically "boy" things (sports, technology). I'd be excited if my son was interested in these things, but also excited if he were interested in the arts.
We have some family members (don't live very nearby) who would be great male role models. I have some male friends who live nearby (also great role models), but my close friends skew female. I expect to meet more (female) "mommy" friends now that he is here.
Does anyone in this group have any tips for raising a boy? I'm worried about big picture things (ensuring he develops a strong individual identity, and a wide concept of what it means to be a man) as well as more immediate practical things (teaching him to use the toilet, figuring out how to use the locker room at the Y when he's too big to use the women's room with me).
ETA: I know it's also possible that he won't identify as a boy! I'm open to hearing that from him one day, and am asking based on the assumption that he does indeed identify as a boy/man. Raising a trans child would also introduce parenting challenges that I do not yet fully understand.

My pup is 7 months old. We mostly focus on training for PTSD handling and other things, however I also have social anxiety which my pup helps with greatly. When I am turned in a store looking at products, he sits or lays between my legs or beside me and watch for people. If someone is coming close or too close to me, he stands up or nudges me to let me know there is a person standing beside me and that he has my back, my friends would help with this. I know it is odd to see a doberman puppy working as a service dog where I'm at, but I would assume most of the attention would come from kids. I took him to a dollar store, very small and not crowded and he did wonderful in it. However a few things really made me feel... like I had failed in certain areas of training. He did keep his eyes on people, and rarely on me even when I said "focus" which he usually does, but I understand it's his first time out so I corrected it the best I could and decided we should leave quickly. On my way out, a man said "Wow hey boy, such a beautiful boy, hey" causing my dog to stand and stare at him and almost tug, but he listens when I say "walk" meaning to stay by my side. I do have a trainer to work with however I would like more advice on this, I am feeling like a failure because he didn't ignore or look at me when I had tried to correct him. Is this normal for a 7 month old SDIT? I do not take him out tons of places because of his age and keep it very low key, is this the reason?

Im loving the sopranos so far but ive noticed that the way the story is told (specifically across episodes) is weird and ill give an example of what i mean.
After a while of suspecting Pussy, tony finds out it was actually jimmy that was ratting and has him whacked - but pussy has also completely dissapeared and remains gone for the next couple of episodes. At the start of s3 pussy returns and talks to Tony explaining that he knew they suspected him of ratting so he went on a trip to puerto rico which his doctor had recommended for his back.
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now all this made sense to me, but after this we got a scene of pussy talking to a guy in the car saying that he hadn't revealed to tony he was back in town yet - this confused me to no ends because the scene wasn't introduced as a flashback scene or that it wasn't set in the present. It was just placed into the show for seemingly no reason. I geniunely thought that i had got episodes mixed up and watched them out of order because of this but i found out after that it was not.
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what really confused me to the point of no return is when Pussy met with the fed in the party shop, it was introduced into the show like i already had that information but it was the first i had heard of it. It threw me through such a loop because i was convinced at that point that i had missed an episode or missed a certain scene etc. It was confusing that it was actually annoying to watch because i wasn't sure if i was missing out on the full story.
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The sopranos seems to have a trend of having things happen off screen and then just throwing it on screen as if the audience has an understanding of whats happening, does this continue throughout the whole series? also have i just been an idiot and missed obvious clues in the show that reveals these plot points? someone help me out.

I will be rewatching the reboot and reviewing it after certain things have made me realize that I do not like most other fans’ opinions of things. They seem overly critical, especially fans of the original Charmed.
For reference, I have seen and enjoyed all seasons/episodes of the original, but only the first two seasons of the reboot, and I don’t remember most of the reboot that I’ve seen. I will not be comparing the two. I personally feel that everyone compares the original and the reboot, and that doesn’t give the reboot a fair chance in my opinion. Same name and premise aside, the reboot is not the original, and it has its own storyline, characters, and rules, and thus should be judged on its own merits.
Charmed Reboot Season 1, Episode 1
So the first line of the reboot: “This is not a witch hunt.” It’s a good opening line, got me interested.
I liked the scene with Mel, Maggie, and their mother. It was actually nice that we got to see the mom of the Charmed Ones so early on. And their dynamic screams close so far.
Okay. Next scene was pretty bad. The “get naked” text was pretty out of left field. And I’m already not a fan of Brian. Stalker much? Also, why does he come off as a high schooler?
I actually loved the mom’s death scene. It was sufficiently creepy and gave a mystery to run off of. That said, Mel’s already beginning to annoy me. I thought this show was supposed to be feminist, not misandric. Replacing one prejudice for another is not what I’m here for. Side note, for some reason, I love Lucy already. She’s adorable.
I like Macy already, and Maggie for that matter. Don’t ask why. Not a fan of Galvin, his character’s coming off pretty dry, and he’s giving me “Lean on me because I’m the man” vibes, and ew. Also, not getting any chemistry. Dr. Thaine, meanwhile, is seriously creepy, and not in a good way.
More sexism from Mel. Gross. And Harry is also creepy. Fun (sarcasm). Starting to get the sense that this show is trying way too hard to make all the men come off as creeps.
Proven more with the next scene and Cam. This is getting ridiculous.
Yeah, Macy is already my fave of these sisters. Hating Mel. Maggie is okay though, so far. I take back what I said about the seeming closeness. That said, while I have no clue why Macy didn’t go to their house during the day like a normal person when it would be less suspicious, I did like the whole lightning flash/power outage. It brought back the creepy feels, in a good way, from the scene where the mom died.
And we get to the powers! Macy has telekinesis. An iconic power, and it suits her. Mel has freezing time. That scene with her was actually cool, kind of hoping it’s actual chronokinesis cause that would be bomb. And as a side note, while I still don’t like Mel as a character, digging Niko so far, and those two at least have chemistry, unlike Macy/Galvin and Maggie/Brian. And Maggie has telepathy! That’s actually my favorite power. While I would prefer it didn’t require touch, I still love that she has it. All of the powers seem like they’ll be useful and I love that. Other side notes: 1) I’d have put the scene of Mel’s power activation before Maggie’s, but I’m also OCD so it bugs me the power reveals weren’t in birth order. Lol 2) Still loving Lucy. lol 3) Mel getting kidnapped looked so frickin’ stupid, omg.
So I liked the attic scene as a whole. Harry redeemed himself in my eyes, just on account of how adorable he was in it. Lol And more mystery!
Side note: I know that I said that I wouldn’t compare the two shows, so I’m only bringing this up cause it somewhat has to do with this specific Charmedverse, and I’ve also noticed that others who have tried this show tend to bring it up negatively. The Melinda Warren reference. I don’t think that was meant to tie this show and the original into the same universe, I think it was just a throwback, same as them using the word “whitelighter”. Back to the reboot.
Brian’s still being a stalker. But Mel and Niko are actually really cute together.
Demon dog was as stupid as the Mel kidnap scene.
I will say I’m loving the new whitelighter powers, and the revamp of the old ones, feels more modern. I liked Macy solving the demon crisis with science. You don’t normally see that in magic-centric shows. Good acting from Sarah Jeffery with the mini breakdown she had regarding their mother. And the Maggie kidnap scene definitely came off better than Mel’s, more real and suspenseful, even if it was just a rush prank.
Still loving Lucy.
The possessed Brian scene was really stupid, ridiculous, and annoying. They need to stop with the feminist shit, at least the way they’re doing it. It’s not coming off as feminist, it’s coming off as forced and like they’re turning it into a joke, and it’s offensive. Also, the way the demon was vanquished…. I feel like I’m watching the Disney channel. Side note: Can Brian just… disappear? He seriously comes off like a high school minor, so the romance stuff with him just makes me uncomfortable. He and Maggie don’t even have chemistry… and I’m kind of glad about that.
I liked the following sisterhood scenes. They’re getting back to close and I’m not hating Mel so much anymore, but I need to see more of her for more of a new (solid) opinion.
More faux feminism (back to disliking Mel, that was fast) and Thaine/Thaydeus’ (sp?) horrible characterization aside, the demon fight was actually good. And despite not wanting to do this, it has to be said. I am liking the actual spells. One of the only things I hated about the original show was the rhyming couplets as it didn’t fit the otherwise adult themes of that show.
And the ending cliffhanger was actually bomb and made me want to keep watching!
All in all and in conclusion, it wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be. Could it be better? Definitely. But it had as much good as bad so far, so I’m going to keep watching. If I could sit through all four seasons of Legacies, I think I can get through this. Lol
Tell me what you all thought of this episode in the comments below, and I’ll see everyone for my Season 1, Episode 2 review.

I remember during the summer, they used to close down Memorial Drive on the weekends for biking. Does that still happen? If it does, does anyone know when they close it?
I feel like biking, so please let me know! Also, what are your favorite places to bike around Boston?

For the purpose of this post, I am not talking about a Biblical God, or Abrahamic God, or anything inbetween. I'm talking about everything which is higher than the material - untouchable and unfathomable. The thing can flows through us all which we cant explain. Deeper than 'black and white' and stronger than 'cause and effect' - some people know what I mean, the others can feel free to attack me in the comments which they usually do anyway.
Todays world is designed to drag us away from God and to turn us into materialistic beings that have no belief in something higher. Peace, love and unity are the most important things in life, yet the elite want to turn us into money obsessed, success orientated, soulless individuals focused on one thing and one thing only: what we see with our eyes and not what we feel with our hearts.
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1. Social media. Social media is a dangerous tool. It makes us focus on the ego. We try to portray ourselves as successful individuals with amazing lives when the truth is that we're actually all struggling. The reason we're struggling is because of things like social media that draw all the bad parts out of us rather than the good parts. That's the paradox. For anyone who has a social media account, they can't explain exactly why it ruins their mental wellbeing, but they know it does. That's why many of us decide to leave it. Because social media is a virus plaguing humanity, more so than any COVID or other pandemic. Social media is a tool that drags us away from God and closer to ego.
2. Technology. Phones, PC's, Macs, laptops, TV's etc. All of these things are designed to drag us away from God and closer to a material realm that serves our souls in no way whatsoever, whilst feeding our egos infinitely. The problem these days especially is that it has been organised so that we need these things. You want a job? You need emails and a CV. You want to talk to your friends about entertainment? You need TV to be able to talk about the things they're talking about. You want to see this meme or understand this theory? You need internet. They've turned technology into a necessity whilst this same necessity is one of the main elements killing our society. Technology is another element dragging us from God and closer to materialism.
3. NeuraLink, StarLink, and other technological advancements. Soon people will be getting chips implanted into their brains (Neuralink) and connecting them to a worldwide internet service(StarLink). This will turn humans into trans-humans and connect them to a grid they can never escape from. These people will no longer be organic humans but artificially influenced humans that can never connect with the true realm of God and can never transcend. These people will be divided from the organic humans and the same thing will happen with us that has happened with technology - if you are a trans-human - you will have infinite abilities that are necessary to compete in the capitalist world. Organic humans will not be able to compete in this artificial field. Some will have to give in and submit to NeuraLink to 'keep up' - the rest will remain organic but will be left in the past. The difference will be that the organic humans can still connect to God whilst the artificial humans will be connecting to something else. It will cause a huge divide, even bigger than the divide between the 'vaxxers and anti vaxxers' on a scale never seen before.
4. The Demonisation of Religion and Holy Texts. There are religions and holy texts worldwide that contain deep information that can help a man or woman to understand the depth of reality and become closer to his or her fellow man. Sure, there are things within some texts that are questionable due to the timeframe passed and the eras such texts were written but at the foundation of these texts you will find certain important truths that have never been written and cherished as much as the ones in the holy texts. These texts these days are demonised and attacked as though they need to be discounted and discredited whilst they are some of the only remaining literature that truly explains how important love, peace, unity, forgiveness, humility, egolessness, compassion, care, honesty, is. Instead, we are more interested in talking negatively about our piers and attacking anything we disagree with. This mentality is breaking down our communities and drawing us further away from the truth - that we should all love each other unconditionally and try and understand each other by any means possible.
5. Music is so powerful that it could change the world. Yet mainstream music these days focuses on two things: sad songs and material raps. There is a reason for this. They want us to cry about our misfortunes with other humans and celebrate money and pride as though it is the most important thing in the world. Where are all the songs about love, peace and unity? They don't exist because the record labels don't let them exist. Look at John Lennon, he tried to get the message out and was killed. That was a statement by the elite. Ever since then, our planet has gone downhill and the music industry has followed. Music is never about love to our fellow man, it is always about the things that keep us blinded and in misery.
6. Film and TV are powerful inventions that could spread messages of peace and love far and wide, yet look what they're used for... when was the last time you watched a film or TV show and left feeling exhilarated, enlightened, full of love? No, you always end up feeling dismal, depressed and withdrawn. This is what 'they' want. For you to sit down in front of a TV, watch some brainwashing program or desensitizing movie and to leave feeling like a piece of meat rather than a being a love. It's just another invention being used against you for the purpose of materialism rather than for you for the purpose of God.
7. News. The news could contain stories of hope and love, positive stories of kindness and generosity. All the stories of real honest people trying to make change in the world. But this never happens. It's always fear, dread, hate, depression. It's to keep you scared and contained in your little bubble, in belief that the world is a dark place devoid of anything pure. The News is the most deadly device of them all because it convinces you that the 'News' of the world. Is the 'Dark' of the world. Whilst there is actually real love going on, they just don't mention it because it has the power to inspire you, and to change you and build you up. But they don't want you to be built up, they want you to be broken down.
8. CCTV and monitoring. One of the things that connects us with God is our ability to be free. But with mass surveillance worldwide, it is becoming less and less possible to do so. Your phone is tracking you, cameras are tracking you, internet is tracking you etc. They are constantly monitoring you and following you at all times, even when you are just living your life like a regular human being. It is a massive invasion of privacy and even if you don't notice it consciously, it is breaking you don't on a subconscious level with God. Mass public surveillance is in action and if you want function and be deemed as 'normal' in this world, you must comply, whilst devaluing your connection with God and losing everything about that connection that is most important.
9. Sub-Cultures. 30 years ago people had differences, but we were still understanding that we were all human, and at the end of the day, we realised we were one. These days everyone has been devided into certain groups and sub-sets, where people who's opinons differ to others seem to make them believe like they are almost part of a different race. This is compeltely untrue. We are all brothers and sisters and need to treat each other as such. All religions and spiritual texts will teach you the same. These new divides created by the elite were created for a reason: to drag us further away from each other and ultimately God, when really we need to be drawn closer together, and effectively, closer to God.
10. Food and Health. One of the most important ways of connecting with God is by looking after and treating your body and mind accordingly. This requires good food, lots of good water, meditation, prayer, fluoride free toothpaste, exercise, sleep, cold showers etc. All of these things, one way or another, are constantly attacked by people in an effort to convince you that it's not that important, or you're thinking too much, or you're 'conspiracy theorist' etc. But whilst they try to convince you that this stuff isn't important, you might actually tweak these parts of your life, and when you do so, you realise how much better your life becomes and how much easier it is to reconnect with God. Isn't it strange how the things they tell us our nonsense, and how we shouldn't bother doing them - that once we do them, we feel better as a result and closer to 'God' ? That's for a reason. God is real, and when you realise that the whole world has been orchestrated in a way to drag you away from truth, and from God, you can finally start working towards peace & love, and finally finding 'God' once again.

Thanks for reading.

Picked up two Olympus 35mm cameras, a Trip AF 50 and a Trip 600, from a thrift store. I'm trying to determine if they're fully functional. I noticed that when I put batteries in and let the flash charge, the flash only fires when the back cover is open. If I push the shutter release button when the back cover is closed, the camera sounds like it is slowly exposing and does not flash. If I push the button when the back is open, the flash immediately fires and the camera quickly exposes and advances. This is all with no film in the camera. Same for both cameras. Is this normal? Is it related to no film being loaded? I know with other automatic 35mm cameras I've used, the flash will fire as normal when the back is closed and there's no film. Thanks for any replies.

AN: A little one shot I did that I thought I'd share with y'all, did it yesterday after a brief moment of inspiration. If you're not familiar with the youtube series 'Helluva Boss' watch it.
“Alright you worthless pack of crotch goblin crack babies, pump and dump leftovers, and…Floridians. Get your asses out of your cardboard boxes and over to the windows and go to the showroom to see whatever factory, brothel, rich prick or bored housefrau are looking for cheap labor or decorations. And put on a good show or Satan help you there’ll be no sawdust in your dinner tonight!” The obese demon’s mouth dropped open as low as his chest as he leaned into the door to shout, acidic spittle flew past his red lips and added fresh holes to the cardboard box that served as Loona’s ‘space’.
She still had it out of habit, but the early days when the boxes lined the walls and it was the only way anyone could sleep without crowding everyone else… those were over.
Now she was the last one left, but the burly demon who finished his words with a loud ‘braaap’ that smelled like beer to her sharp nose, didn’t even know that much. The last batch of orphans were gone already.
Whether they went to good homes or not was hardly a question. ‘It’s hell. There’s no good homes here unless you’re rich.’ But between the orphanage she’d spent her life in and the lives they were going to, the hellhound had no idea whether they were better off or not. Some yes, some no.
She had a private game she played with herself, guessing the lives the ones who were chosen were leaving for. Last night’s batch went with an owl demon family in fancy clothes, the oldest of them was stooped with age, but whether that meant he was actually old or if he’d come down to hell looking that way, or even been born that way… who knew? But the little owl family had a very small boy who was pointing at the line.
While the younger ones danced, did tricks, and answered questions and tried to impress the parents and the boy who pointed at them one by one, she did not.
“And you? What is your name?” The demon-wife asked, and Loona shrugged.
“Loona.” She replied.
“Daaaaad, the mongrel’s not doing anything!” The small one complained and tapped the glass like he was trying to rile up an animal exhibit.
“Ah yes, ah, what do you do?” The husband asked, he leaned forward a little, his eyes wide and yellow, she might have thought he wasn’t bad looking as older guys went, were it not for the fact that he was a little stooped.
It was fairly obvious that the younger woman had married up in status.
Loona bared her teeth and jumped toward the glass, her palms slapped against it, and the small well dressed boy fell backward. “I eat little boy demons in their sleep and fuck their daddies to give them a kid that’s actually theirs!”
The young one began to wail, his keening noise was bad enough that she almost…almost felt bad.
“You bitch!” The younger woman shrieked and pounded on the glass, but it was built to withstand exactly this.
So it held.
Loona straightened up, looked the stunned, disbelieving older demon in the eyes, had he not been caught so off guard, he might have said something, but his shock was her chance. Loona took a few sniffs, “Yeah, he’s not your kid dude, she’s cheating on you. I can tell. Oh and,” she moved in front of the trophy wife and took another sniff from the other side of the glass, inhaling through the little holes through which their words passed, “she was with someone last night. Know where she was, or were you watching? If that’s your thing dude, whatever.” She tapped her nose and winked at the old demon, and fire erupted around the woman that turned the ceiling black.
“We’ll take all of them but that one!” The wife screeched. “Let her rot here by herself!”
Loona shrugged and walked away from the wailing at the glass and took her place in line with the last half dozen of small demon children. They ranged from six to eleven, and as such they still had hopes. It made her dismissal and behavior all the more outlandish and impossible in their eyes. Whether they were hellhounds or imps or something else among the lower class demons, they, at least, were still too young to have given up yet.
When reality hit home for the small ones, they erupted in cheers. The older male began sputtering, he was moving away from the glass, looking from wife to child… she grabbed and yanked the boy up into her arms and overrode him, “We wanted a playmate for Loris and now we’ve got a bunch of them.”
“But honeybunch, that’s more than we intended-” He protested as she guided him toward the door and away from the wall.
“So we’ll make one a playmate for Loris and the others can just clean up their shit. Whatever, let’s go! I need to meet my tennis coach later!” She snapped at the older demon, and out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimmer of understanding in his eyes.
She might never know for sure, but one thing she was certain of, ‘When it hits home, he won’t be having a conversation with her.’
So being left alone was almost worth it.
That had been the other day, all they had to do to close the building down now was for her to be gone, then it could be sold, and the fat bastard could retire wherever all the other rich fat fucks went when the other institutions had shut down after a buyout.
Seeing her alone now, the fat bastard seemed to slowly recall the incident from the other day.
“And if one of these don’t take you, you’re cleaning up that ceiling unless you want your bowl taken away too!” He bellowed at her, and she nodded.
Life there was one of trying to minimize the unfortunate things. There was no real avoiding them, but they could be minimized with a little cooperation. Don’t say anything when they give you food. Don’t ask for more. Don’t encourage any of the kids to run, and don’t hold back any money if you’re put to work at something.
Those would minimize the slaps and deny them the excuses for the more humiliating punishments, like making hellhounds eat like actual dogs.
That was worse than the occasional slap.
So she sighed and trudged to the far end of the room, opened the door, slammed it behind her, and went to stand in front of the glass. “Name is Loona and I’m here because I bit off my mother’s tit when I was a baby.” It was a lie, probably, though the truth is she didn’t know. Even the orphanage itself didn’t know what, if anything, happened to her parents.
For all she knew, they’d been killed off in a power struggle after a purge.
And since there was no way to know? She didn’t care, and just made up stories for shock value or intimidation. “I’m seventeen. I won’t call you dad. I won’t sleep with you. I’m lazy, and I’ll take off as soon as I’m an adult. Sound good? No? Great. Get the fuck out.” She didn’t even look at the glass or see who was there.
It didn’t matter anyway.
She slumped, her tail and ears drooped, and when the next one came in. “Loona. Seventeen. And I’m here because I wouldn’t stop shitting on everything. I don’t plan to either. Sound good? No. Fuck off.”
“Loona. Seventeen. Cut off my dad’s balls when he tried to pimp me out. Sound good? No? Fuck off.”
“Loona. Seventeen. Kept stealing from my dad’s business to buy drugs. Got any nice easily pawnable stuff at home?” She asked. That one left before she could even tell them to fuck off.
That was how it went, unusually enough, there were more of them than she expected. ‘Fatass must have put out fliers or something.’ She thought. It was hard to picture him doing any work but… he had to have done ‘something’ around the building.
“That’s it for now, get your ass over there and scrub the fuckin ceiling, mongrel!” He shouted from whatever room he’d sequestered himself in.
It wasn’t lost on her that he knew she hadn’t been picked. And probably he figured she’d sabotaged it too.
“No good lousy, lazy, sack of shit…” She mumbled and groused as she stomped to the supply closet, filled the bucket with boiling water, the noise of it echoed in the small confined space like thunder. The steady rise of water was like a clock ticking away the seconds before she could leave this place and die a proper death in some pointless street brawl.
She dumped the foul chemicals into the water, it burned her nose to smell it, but there was no avoiding that much. If she wanted food, she’d have to obey, and her belly was already starting to rumble. Even the sawdust used to thicken out the gruel would have tasted pretty good right about then.
She wheeled the cheap metal bucket out along with the mop and watched the wheels wiggle around on the floor until she brought it to a stop on the other side of the glass.
Loona soaked the mop, strained it to leave it damp, and then held it overhead, clenching her jaw as the burning liquid dripped down into her fur, the foul smell made her gag as it filled the confined space of the narrow hall. The soot on the roof from the cuck’s wife would not come out easy.
But if she worked at it… well, it wasn’t her first time. She went about it with practiced ease.
Nasty as it was, the mindless task at least let her turn off her brain, which she did, and that was also why the high pitched voice caught her by surprise… along with the fact that the chemicals had utterly ruined her nose for the time being.
“Hello there, fuckface, listen I found a flier here about a going out of business bargain on orphans, and I came to get a look so who do I have to fuck around here to get a look at some kids?!” Loona whirled around to glare at the one to speak to her, and found herself face to face with a fairly tall, slender imp with curled horns in a black and white pattern, clad in a black coat and with sharp yellow eyes.
He raised one long finger, “That came out wrong.” He said, and then without missing a beat, he grabbed the lining of his coat with his left hand and thrust out his right toward Loona. “Hi, I’m Blitz the O is silent, nice to meet you, now where are the little rapscallions?”
Loona ignored the hand and put her mop back down in the bucket. It took her a moment to realize, ‘Oh, he thinks I work here!’ It was too good a chance to miss.
She’d never been on the ‘other’ side of the glass in a situation like this… so she gingerly extended a hand while she built up her story. “Hi, yeah if you’re interested, there’s one left. But she’s an evil bitch.”
“Perfect.” He said.
“And she’s old. Like I guess you could probably fuck her, but also she’d probably kill you. She’s crazy like that, total murder hobo, got here by killing both her parents.”
“Meh, no diapers no problem, and I don’t fuck kids and I don’t mind the killing.” He gave a bright, almost clownish smile and thrust his hand into his coat to pull out a business card.
Loona took it in between her fingers and read it. “IMP?” She asked.
“Yes! My own business. We go up to the living world and kill anyone who needs killing. So a killer kid, well, that just means they’ve had practice.” His big grin was almost off putting, but it was also oddly ‘endearing’ like he was used to putting on a performance for people and knew how to get their attention.
“Oh, so you want an employee. Well the last one is lazy, like actual garbage. She’s been here for seventeen years and won’t even do more than fuck with people who come in.” She handed the card back and leaned on the mop. “She’s just the absolute worst.”
“Oh that’s no problem, fucking with people is half my job. And besides, I don’t want an employee, I want…” He stopped, his mouth clamped shut.
“Never mind.” He said. “Can I see the kid or not?”
“No. Sorry, you have to say what you want them for, it goes on the form. We really don’t care. Nobody who works here gives a shit, but if we don’t submit a reason, we’ll get in trouble. You could just want someone to smuggle drugs up their ass, and as long as the form is filled out, nobody cares what’s on it.” She snorted, that wasn’t even a lie.
“Fine. It’s that. I need an anal coke mule.” Blitzo said, but it was the most obvious lie Loona had ever heard, he was also far more subdued than when he first came in.
She snorted, “No, it’s not, I just made that up. Now go on, what’s the real reason you want to adopt a seventeen year old lazy good-for-nothing killer that nobody has even given a second glance at one single time in seventeen years of her worthless, disappointing, trashy existence, Mr. Blitz the O is Silent?” She put his name in air quotes and stared at the slender imp, and finally he exhaled.
“Fine. You really want to know?” He asked and went to look into the empty room where Loona should have been on display. “I’ve got these employees, Moxie and Millie, they’re my hitters. They’ve got a great marriage. A great life. I see them every single day, and the thing is, I know that if they left my business, they’d go off and…be just fine. They don’t need me.”
“Nobody needs me. I’m probably one of the only imps in hell to have his own business. I know I’m the only imp with access to the living world. I can do what nobody else can do. But sooner or later I’ll probably die, either a client, or a job, or a purge. And even though I can do what nobody else can do, let’s be real. These fuckin idiots out there who hire us are a few horns short of a demon. Pretty much anybody they want to kill for revenge is probably going to come down here anyway, and if they weren’t, all we did was send their target to those prude fucks up in heaven for a few extra eternal years of bliss. Even so, the money is pretty fuck’n good. And I like doing stuff I’m good at.” He chuckled, “But then what? Who do I give it to? So I thought… maybe…” His bright yellow eyes grew large as he pressed them against the window.
“Maybe if I had a kid, I could teach them stuff, get them really good at killing, running a business, and pass it on to them.” Blitzo answered and then his voice grew hard, “Besides, someone like what you say… yeah, I get that. Being an imp is not a whole lot better than being an orphan.”
“What do you know about it?” She snapped at him, her tail bristled.
“I used to be a circus performer, long time ago. Making people laugh who didn’t give a fuck if I lived or died. So yeah, I know about putting on shows for assholes.” Blitzo said and crossed his arms as if daring her to argue the point.
Her stomach rumbled, interrupting her thoughts.
“What am I keeping you from lunch or something?” Blitzo asked.
“Nah. I’ll eat tonight.” Loona answered and then asked, “So, if you did get this kid, would you… pay her?” She asked.
“Well yeah, if she’s working there she’s gonna get a salary even if she’s my kid. I have standards… not high ones but still!” He exclaimed.
“It’s not an imp.” She said, “Nobody will buy that you actually got laid.”
Blitzo snorted, “Hey, I have- no that’s not the point!” He stopped himself and then retorted, “Listen if the kid doesn’t want me, that’s up to them, fine, but what’s with all the stalling.”
“So, like, yeah, you know she’s not going to call you dad or anything, right?” Loona prompted, “She’s almost grown up.”
“Well… maybe not. But maybe? When she sees I’m trying to be the best dad ever!” Blitzo answered and slapped his chest with one hand, “I’ll have you know I can be very nurturing and very patient. If she wants to call me by my first name, well, that’s alright.”
“And if maybe, she say, wouldn’t go with you unless you helped her punish the place that spent the last seventeen years making her hate the fact that she existed…?” Loona looked the imp up and down, he was definitely taller than the average imp, at least a third as much so. Not as tall as she was, but he loomed over the other imps she’d seen.
“Well, that just sounds like a fun first daddy-daughter activity. Why, it’s more wholesome than the rainbow shit of an angel.” Blitzo said with pride, and Loona couldn’t resist a short laugh.
“Really, Blitz the O is silent?” Loona asked and cocked her head.
“Really, really.” Blitzo answered, preening with pride, “A good dad looks after his kid, and he punishes the ones that hurt them.”
“Alright then, I’ll… go get her.” Loona’s heart pounded her chest when she recognized her own words.
She dropped the mop and disappeared around the corner. She passed through the common area, and saw her cardboard box lying there in the middle, she kicked it aside and watched it crumple against the wall.
Then after taking one long breath, she opened the door and stepped into the showroom.
Blitzo blinked when he saw her come in.
“My name is Loona. I’m seventeen years old. I don’t know how I got here. Where my parents are, if they’re alive, dead, or what. I don’t know whether they wanted me, or whether I was garbage they threw away the moment I was born. I’ve been through a lot of these showings. Sometimes a half a dozen a day, watched one kid after another picked. And, honestly, if you walk out that door too, I’m pretty sure that I won’t leave here until I’m eighteen. You might really be my last shot at… I don’t even know what anymore. So if you do leave, I guess I’ll never know. And I’m ready for that. But… if all that stuff you said wasn’t bullshit, I can at least promise I won’t run away.”
She raised her head, “I’ve got nowhere to run to anyway. I guess we’ve got that much in common, huh?”
“Yeah. I guess we do.” Blitzo answered from the other side of the glass.
A loud ‘braaaap’ echoed from another room. “Hey mongrel, you get that ceiling clean or are you going to be eating scraps off the floor again?!”
Loona’s belly rumbled again, and Blitzo put two and two together very quickly.
“I gotta fill out some paperwork real quick, you wait there, yeah?” He said and stepped away from the glass.
Loona nodded.
She didn’t move a step while she listened to the crashing and screaming from another room. “We. Are trying. To have. A moment here, you asshole!” The crashing was followed by a single scream.
There was nothing, or, not much for a bit. Just the sound of scribbling that even Loona’s keen ears could barely detect.
And then the sound of a closing door as Blitzo returned. He held up a golden paper which read ‘Certificate of Adoption’ on it.
Loona read it over and over. It didn’t seem real, but her face never changed. She left, came around the corner, and winced a little as he squeezed her into a hug that took up both of her arms, the certificate in hand, a phone in the other, and then snapped a picture of the two of them together.
“So… now what, Blitz the O is silent?” She asked when the hug broke.
“Now you first cut the shit, it’s Blitz-O, I just go by Blitz.” He said and put his hands on his hips. “Or,” his bright smile returned and his yellow eyes sparkled like amber in the light, “you can call me daddy… no, no that shit is creepy, just ‘dad’.”
“Blitz it is, then.” She retorted and stepped a little away from him.
“Alright then, so I’ll just drop this in the mail on the way out and we can step out and go shopping.” Blitzo answered and began sealing the certificate up into an envelope he’d taken from the office/scene of the severe beating.
“Shopping, for what?” Loona asked and raised an eyebrow. She let out a groan, “It’s not for some shitty ribbons or matching shirts or anything is it?”
“No, no, no no no, no… maybe later, but no. This is to buy some gas and alcohol to douse this place in so we can burn it to the ground. I’ll betcha fatso in there will go up like a roman fuckin candle when the fire reaches him. But also you can grab lunch, order whatever you want.” He laughed and rubbed his hands together.
Loona almost didn’t believe it. But then… not an hour and a half later, they were back in the building dousing it with cans of foul smelling fuel between taking shots of liquor… and she could still hear him groaning in the office. Her stomach was no longer growling.
“One second, Blitz.” She said when he stood at the door holding a match and ready to strike the flame.
Loona went to the office of her lifelong tormenter, his tendons were cut, his face was a ruin of its former self, his guts were opened and organs tied in knots in various places. Even if she did nothing, odds were he was not going to survive.
But it would take a good long time for him to die too.
“Hey, shitbag.” She said and got his head to waver as he tried to look in her direction.
“I wanted to tell you three things. The ceiling will be clean pretty soon… at least, it’s all going to match by the time the fire dies down, and that’s clean enough. Second, I had a nice lunch while you were stuck here. And third…I guess I might have a pretty good dad.”
She then slammed the door as his arm, which she noticed was shattered in a few places, was slowly raised as if he was expecting her to help him.
Loona then returned to the exit where Blitzo waited with the match still up. “Can I light it?” She asked as she stepped outside.
“Will you call me dad?” He asked and fluttered his eyes at her.
“No.” She replied.
“Alright, here you go anyway.” He said and added, “Make dad proud.” He grinned and watched her strike the match, the little flame hovered like the sun in front of her eyes, and then she gave it a gentle toss. It landed on the floor, the fuel caught, the flames roared, and true to her word, the ceiling matched in seconds, the darkness, smoke, and burning spreading all over the building.
There was a brief few seconds of screaming from the office.
But then there was nothing but the roar of flames.
“So… Now what, Blitz?” Loona asked.
“Now, we go home.” Blitzo answered, “Let me show you where it is.”
And with that, she walked beside him without a backward glance while the building fell to ruin behind her.

I just don't see how this fight is fair.
I've done it so many times now I get the first killing blow with my eyes closed. But I cant catch a break in the second phase. They are relentless. I can get one hit in and then have to dodge, jump, parry and run around for a minute because when the headless is staggered the girlfriend does an endless combo and vice versa. There are no openings.
I've fought difficult bosses, but this is just running around and slowly die or take risk and die fast.
And the fighting cowboy gitgud guide just annoyed me. There they are nowhere near as aggressive

Hey all,
I’ve owned the game for awhile, and played it in and off but I trying to get into it long term right now.
I have some questions about various timers on official servers (I assume timer(s) can be changed on community servers)
When a zombie is killed how long does the body stay on the floor before despawning? I’m curious about this because I was in a town and spotted a dead zombie, it made me wonder was I fairly close to someone.
When zombies are killed how long until they respawn?
When an item is dropped how long until it despawns?
And similarly, when an item is looted how long until a new item in the same place respawns? I’m not interested in loot cycling.
Thanks a lot.

Hi all, today i will talk about the system made by Frxcanal
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My cousin brother who is a couple years older than me is the closest I've been to a person. He's the one I trusted the most and when in the worst situations I'd ask him for help. I don't have friends to talk to on social media because I'm really paranoid about internet security. And I never ask friends at school for their social media accounts because I'm paranoid they'll leak my pictures into school group chats or something. So in short I'm just very paranoid and aren't really close to other people. My brother is the only one I was close to but we go into a small fight. I went to show him my test question paper since he's a senior in biology and I wanted to take biology too. He started saying things like oh you're so dumb and I'm so smart and I'm the perfect student and I got kinda angry. He had been doing that a lot these days and I was happy since he was finally confident in himself but now it just felt like he was insulting me while I just wanted a bit of help with science... his younger brother(12) was there and when he said "I'm literally the most perfect son and student" and so I was like yeah you never smoke. But he smoked once. So he got really mad at that and said "I'll expose your family secrets and ruin your life." And I just don't know man. I just left and told him not to talk to me and locked myself in my room and cried. He knocked but I didn't respond and he texted me like twice but I just don't wanna talk to him. This isn't the only time he's done this. Whenever we have a small fight he says things like "Oh yeah atleast I didn't have to (insert bad thing that happened to me)" and I broke down crying once and he stopped mentioning it after that but now he does it again. I can't deal with this anymore please I don't have anyone in this world to talk to and I just don't want to do things anymore. I just wish I hadn't been so vulnerable around him and my birthday is this week and I don't want him to be there I can't handle this please. I don't wanna go to school and I struggle to talk to my parents. I just don't feel like anything I just feel sad. I don't know anymore man I feel like such a loser I don't know

(coughs awkwardly) … quiet week, huh?
So I don’t have any opinion polls to back this up, but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the vast majority of y’all are at least vaguely familiar with Hamilton, voluntarily or otherwise. I’m also going to assume that most of you are familiar with the trend of unexpected cultural phenomena being followed by a wave of imitators hoping to ride the coattails to success. Old Town Road blew up on the clock app, now record labels are judging songs for TikTok memeability. Twilight mania saw everyone and their dog rushing out YA adaptations. Blue space people Avatar was followed by 5 years of unnecessary 3D releases.
Hamilmania was no exception, which brings us to the Roundabout Theatre Company. Presumably with cartoonish dollar signs in their eyes, they asked themselves “how can we get in on the action?” Eventually, they settled on a solution: dust off the book for 1776, a musical from the 1960s which also happens to be set in the American Revolution and give it the ol’ Hamilton treatment. The idea was simple: take this musical about a bunch of long-dead rich old white guys, replace them with a racially-diverse cast of female/non-binary/trans performers, remix the songs ever so slightly and watch the critical praise roll in. Co-directors Diana Paulus and Jeffrey Page got to work in early 2020, which needless to say complicated things a little bit. But after many delays, the revival finally premiered on Broadway in September 2022… to mixed reviews.
One area that was not up for critique however were the performances themselves. Many critics were especially generous to Sara Porkalob, a Filipina woman who was specifically headhunted by Diana Paulus to play the role of a pro-slavery white supremacist. As far as I can tell, she wasn’t really a part of the Broadway establishment, instead coming up from the Seattle indie theatre scene, which from what I gather is pretty insular. Is this relevant for later? Probably. Anyway, before all of (gestures at the rest of the writeup), she was best known for writing and performing a critically acclaimed one-woman show about her relationship with her mother. Y’know, the type of thing performed at the back of a smokey bar with a single bongo in front of a crowd of beatniks (okay so that’s not how it went down but I love the mental image).

Sit Down, John Sara - the interview that kickstarted it all

About a month into the run, she gave an interview with Vulture discussing her role and what it’s like being an Asian woman playing a slave-owning, unabashedly pro-slavery white man. Most of it’s pretty standard interview fare: behind the scenes stories, praise for her castmates, that sort of thing. Pretty quickly though, Sara started critiquing the Broadway establishment and how it was out-of-touch with the changing audience…

“Institutions often think that you need to investigate everything before you can start to restructure, but that’s not true. They’re afraid to make changes (...) Institutions are always making these five-year fucking plans and being like, We’re gonna make it with a consultant and we’ll share it later. Then they share it with the community after two years and now the community doesn’t care about the institution anymore”

… then she started sharing some of her gripes about the revival, and how she felt it undermined its own message with its clumsy and cringey (her words, not mine) approach to tackling racism…

“On the inside, I’m cringing at that, I’m cringing at the fucking projected egg song, and I cringe a little at the end when we hold out those coats. I’m like, it’s okay. I wouldn’t have wanted it this way, but I am doing my job”.

… as well as the inherent yikes-ness of casting an Asian performer such as herself as the show’s pro-slavery white character…

”The non-Black POC folks (...) were assimilated into whiteness with no consideration of how our personal identity intersected with this song or this history. The directors, by using race as a binary in the construction of “Molasses to Rum,” unconsciously held up a false narrative by assimilating non-Black POC folks into whiteness, because they were prioritizing the Black folks.”

… and criticised how the producers never made use of the cast’s diverse gender identities and sexualities other than as a selling point.

“They were prioritizing … race as a driving creative choice more than anything else. Gender identity, sexual identity — those we weren’t talking about”.

The interviewer then asked if she experienced any difficulty adjusting from having full creative control as an indie artist to just another member of an ensemble cast, which is precisely when all hell broke loose. Sara admitted that she wasn’t feeling artistically fulfilled by the role and this was strictly a career move for her. Aim for a Tony nomination and some good reviews, network with big names in the industry and use it to further her actual passions.
Finally, in the very last line in the interview, she dropped the bombshell line that got everyone up in arms: when asked about how much effort she’s putting into the show, she replied…

“I’m giving 75%. When I do ‘Molasses to Rum,’ I’m giving 90%”

Now, if you read the interview you might remember the part where she mentioned that her ultimate goal was to use this role to further her career. You might also be wondering if this interview hurt that. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many people wondered if she was trying to build up her indie cred by publicly calling out mainstream Broadway? Her points had merit, but was going public like this the most professional way of going about it?
People politely discussed these points of view with poise and rationalit- haha, no, people immediately took nuance and its cousin tact out behind the shed and shot them in the back of the head. Vicious debates started in the comments section under the article, including one pro-Sara user who was widely assumed to be Sara using a sockpuppet account, though I think it later turned out to be one of her IRL friends. The story quickly picked up momentum and Broadway fans splintered into pro- and anti-Sara camps, with the battlelines being drawn over the question of whether Sara was:
A) a confident artist who knew her own worth and whose only crime was keeping it real, OR;
B) an entitled, arrogant egotist whose delusions of grandeur were matched only by her shameless clout-chasing.
It wasn’t just terminally online theatre fans who were talking about this, however. Other performers started weighing in, it got airplay in Broadway news sites and even warranted a few mentions in mainstream media. People magazine picked up the story, The Seattle Times came out to bat for their hometown hero, and the New York Times published a critical opinion piece
To her supporters, her bluntness was refreshing - yes, the end goal of any job is to get paid, why should Broadway be any different? At the end of the day, it’s still a job and if Sara wants to set healthy boundaries between work and her life then more power to her. While she may be one of the stars, she shouldn’t be obliged to lie about the state of the show or be in promotion mode 100% of the time. To see someone cut through all the puff and PR speak like that wasn’t just novel, but it also broke right through the “be happy that you’re here and don’t complain” attitude of the community.
To her opponents however, going public like this while the production was still running and struggling to fill seats was insanely unprofessional - would the struggling show be able to survive the negative PR hit of one of the leads coming out against it in public? Some questioned her motives and wondered if she was really doing this to shine a light on Broadway’s issues or if she was using it as a cynical attention-grab, with some people who claimed to know her IRL certainly thinking that was what she was doing.
And then there was the reaction to the 75% comment which is what literally everyone zeroed in on - there’s a reason it’s in the title.
It was pointed out that Idina Menzel (Elphaba from Wicked, Elsa from Frozen) made basically the same comment years ago and nobody raked her over the coals for it. Could it be that her being a non-white woman in a predominantly white industry possibly, maybe have a role to play? Some people seemed to think so. Not to mention, Broadway performance schedules are absolutely brutal, holding back like that is a totally valid way of preventing vocal damage/burnout and anyone who was up in arms over the 75% comment had either A) never performed onstage before, B) were perpetuating a toxic culture, or C) were selfishly putting their entertainment above Sara’s wellbeing.
Of course, not everybody saw it that way. A lot of people took issue with her comments about wanting to win a Tony in particular - hoping to win the industry’s biggest award with a performance you’re only putting 75% effort into? For many, the perceived arrogance and entitlement was too much to bear. Others took it as a sign of laziness and disrespect towards the audience’s time and money. And then there were people who (rightly or wrongly) interpreted Sara’s 75% comment as protesting against the directors in an “I don’t like these decisions so I’m not going to try” way, and then shot back by saying if she really wanted creative control she could quit and return to Seattle indie theatre where she could do whatever she wanted.
As far as I can tell, the split was along generational lines - older fans leaned anti-Sara, with a lot of “those damned entitled millennials” vibes going around. Meanwhile, younger fans tended to be pro-Sara, with a dash of antiwork flavour thrown in for extra spice. The response depended on the platform, too - old school forums and Broadway bloggers didn’t take too kindly to her, Twitter celebrated her, and broadway and YouTube were split down the middle. I'm gonna take a sec to shine a spotlight on broadwayworld.com in particular, which for those not in the know is to Broadway fandom what FF.net is to fanfiction. As a gathering place for older folks with plenty time on their hands and Opinions about things, you’d expect it to be strongly anti-Sara but reception there was surprisingly split, with their thread running for 5 days and eventually reaching 10 pages (before it was locked over pronoun discourse).

How not to respond to a controversy (OR: the gang learns why publicists, crisis managers, and PR agencies exist)

I mentioned him earlier, but Jeffrey Page was one of two directors behind the 1776 revival and one of the people indirectly called out in Sara’s interview. As an African-American man, it’s pretty safe to assume that a lot of the new focus on American race relations baked into the production came from him. Needless to say, he wasn’t terribly happy about the interview. Nor was he happy that the show he’d worked so long on was making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Instead of putting out your typical “we disagree with the opinions stated by some of our cast members, but respect their input and will endeavour to address any issues in the future” PR statement however, he decided to address the issue by vaguebooking at a “certain nameless someone”:

”Dear nameless person, I know that you feel good about that thing you said… I didn’t feel good about it.
I know you feel like it is now your time in the sun. You ain’t put in the time and you ain’t done the work. You are ungrateful and unwise.
You claim that you want to dismantle white supremacist ideology… I think that you are the very example of the thing you claim to be most interested in dismantling.
You are fake-woke, rotten to the core, and stuck in the matrix; I hope you get that increased IG following that you so desperately thirst.”

Needless to say, this only triggered a whole ‘nother round of discourse. Was it appropriate to respond to unprofessionalism with even more professionalism? As the boss in this situation, was he right to take out his frustration or should he have taken the high road? Some fans put on their deerstalkers and tried to use reactions to the Facebook post from other cast members to gauge the temperature behind the scenes. Meanwhile, a handful of Sara stans decided that obviously this meant that he was fair game for abuse (side note kids: don't send do this).
Of course, he wasn’t the only one who decided to take the direct approach. As all this was going down, Sara hopped on Twitter to post her response. Here are some of the juiciest ones because this is a popcorn sub and I know what y’all are here for:

• I'm surprised by how hung up people are over my 75% comment. But then I remember: they don't know that my 75% is one of the best things they'll ever see & my 100% is unmatchable.
  
• This meme
  
• I lead w/integrity, not respectability politics. Broadway is lucky to have artists like me & my entire 1776 cast. Y'all are salty bc I'm speaking the truth? Bc I'm actually doing the work you say you want to do? Stay mad.
  
• The haters can stay salty bc I'm all about that umamiiiii.
  
• to those who are pissed and saying, "who does she think she is?". Google me, hoes. I've been doing the work, been speaking the truth. I know who TF I am. I do this for the community, for the real ones. The rest of you can choke💖
  
• "You're such a millennial." Ok, boomer.
  
• "The people who hold the purse-strings will never hire you again." That's LITERALLY the point.
  

Sara also clarified that by 75%, she was talking about work-life balance. As in, she’s setting 25% of her mental energy aside for self-care. And y’know, fair enough. On the other hand though, I think I speak for most people when I say that it really didn’t come across that way in the interview.
While her supporters on Twitter were generally positive, in the rest of the community reception wasn't quite as warm. It isn't hard to see why, just look at her tone. People who were all-in on the “Sara is a self-absorbed narcissistic” train now had more ammunition, while some who were on the fence about her before quietly climbed down and parked themselves on the anti-Sara side of the property line. Even people who’d been 100% supportive of her before now found themselves awkwardly staring at their shoelaces and started prefacing their takes with “okay, so she’s a bit obnoxious but you gotta admit…”

Curtain call

This is hobbydrama, so we all know what comes next. Sara doubles down even more, Jeffrey Page fires back, the drama continues. Except… that’s not what happened. Whether it’s because both sides had time to settle down and realise that neither of them were coming out of this looking very good or because lawyers got involved, it wouldn’t be long before both sides backed down, though not without a little bit of residual drama.
First up was Jeffrey, who quietly deleted his Facebook post. Then other Broadway performers who’d weighed in started deleting their hottakes. Meanwhile, Sara put out another series of Tweets striking a gentler tone where she apologised for affecting the rest of the cast, acknowledged how her tone made it very easy to see her as an entitled diva, and to please please please not send death threats to Jeffrey or Diane.
Reactions to her sudden 180 were just as mixed as her initial response. While some thought it was an eloquent and well-written statement, there were two passages in particular that drew a lot of attention:
1) Sara directly addressing it towards “white folks & BIPOC folks w/internalised racism”, which many interpreted as dismissive (at best) or actively trying to frame all criticism towards her as racist (at worst)
2) Saying that firing her “would only be further proof of this industry's inability to adapt & change for the better” which some took either as her preemptively playing the race card or even
And that was that. While there was plenty of speculation Sara would get the sack, in the end the show continued to limp on with her. Many subsequent attendees reporting empty seats abound reported excitedly that much of the original cast would be joining this new production… with one notable exception. Sara announced she’d be back in Seattle with a new project scheduled for April 2023.
What have we learned? Well, I can’t speak for y’all but for me it’s only reinforced that Twitter is an irradiated wasteland where nuance goes to die and if I never have to visit it again it will be too soon. Oh, and that drama kids gonna drama, I suppose.

(theory visualization)
The sound of slaughter rings out across the parched ground outside of Meereen, the shriek of steel, the wails of wounded men, and deep thunder of warhorns. Victarion's heart raced, he never felt more alive. But it was the lithe shadows wheeling across the sun that caught his attention. Dragons. It was time. 'Boy, sound the horn'. The smallest of the three thralls took the massive horn in his hands, dwarfed by it he looks up at Victarion eager for a chance at recognition. Victarion only watches. The Boy takes a deep breath, and, a squeal emits from the horn. But its not enough... The look of fear and weakness that came into his eyes then as he grasped his chest and sputtered up blood slinking onto the deck looking up at the captain. Victarion looked away disapprovingly. 'Bastard then, you're next' The larger boy was more hesitant than the first. He blew, a little louder too, until he too fell away writhing and dying. The dragons still flew on unaffected. The third of the three, the Brute, needed to be escorted to his duty, with trembling hands he too blew the horn and a ghastly sound erupted from it. For a moment it seemed to work, the dragon's turned their gaze, but the scream fading they resumed. Failures, all. Victarion did not know why he did what he did then.. but there was something about the hellhorn that called to him, tempting him to the glory that would not be snatched away from him, stepping over the bodies the liquid sheen of the glyphs seemed to flicker and dance under his fingertips. The metal burned his lips and he felt the fire enter his lungs... it was agony. But it was ecstasy too. The hellish howl of pain and fury shrieked across the battlefield like a thousand screams, and all at once the fighting seemed to stop and all other sound vanished from existence, but for an instant all men were on the same side turning to look at this fresh horror. The smoke was pouring forth from Victarion's mouth by the time he stopped, his lips charred, but... he was still standing. And the dragons were coming.
In this thread I wanted to rediscuss the theory that Moqorro may have crafted Victarion into the perfect tool to blow Dragonbinder... and endure to tell the tale.
..but I'm getting ahead of myself let's start with Victarion's injury...

Poisoned Bandages
Victarion is injured during the taking of the Shields by catching the longsword of Talbert Serry in his iron fist - the blade crunches through the lobstered steel of his gauntlet and his padded glove beneath cutting partway into his flesh. Its seemingly not a large wound, as it only partially makes it through, a "scratch from a little kitten." (as Victarion thinks, overconfidently). Yet it would nearly be his undoing nonetheless...
Soon Victarion enlists the Dusky Woman to help routinely change his bandages and treat the wound with boiled vinegar (a disinfectant as boiling off the water increases its acidity), and the shipboard maester Kerwin would also occassionally check in on its status. It starts with shooting pains in his hand and throbbing. But soon grows to a pus filled mess of an infection, the maester is forced to recommend that the arm can no longer be salvaged and must be removed. Victarions' suspicions turn dark... why would such a minor cut turn so sour? was it poison? And if so who?

Instead the wound had festered, until Victarion began to wonder whether Serry's blade had been poisoned. Why else would the cut refuse to heal? The thought made him rage. No true man killed with poison. At Moat Cailin the bog devils had loosed poisoned arrows at his men, but that was to be expected from such degraded creatures. Serry had been a knight, highborn. Poison was for cravens, women, and Dornishmen. "If not Serry, who?" he asked the dusky woman. "Could that mouse of a maester be doing this? Maesters know spells and other tricks. He might be using one to poison me, hoping I will let him cut my hand off."

But I believe the answer is staring him right in the face. The Dusky Woman. She's been the person who's been at his side treating all of his bandages, most of her mentions in the story are accompanied by her doing this task, drawing our attention to this fact. But Victarion never really sees her as an option, he doesn't really view her as a person with her own motives. Because she is voiceless he uses her as a sounding board, and he takes her silence to be implicit approval and obedience. To him she is merely a salt wife, a possession really, and as such not even given to an actual name.
So he treats her harshly, he takes her when he pleases, he commands her to fetch his food and wine, and from time to time he thinks about slitting her throat and tossing her into the sea.. he just never quite gets around to it. Euron's gifts are poisoned he thinks. We are told Euron took her off a Lyseni slaver and cut out her tongue, so she was likely free before all this once. She'd have every motive to perform the deed, even outside of the theories that she has a deeper connection with Euron (which I will leave to you).
This also somewhat follows the historic parallel of Tess and the Red Kraken Dalton Greyjoy, the bloodthirsty reaver of the Iron Islands. Tess was a salt wife of Dalton, just one of twenty-two, and its the irony that despite being a fierce warrior he never meets his end on the battlefield its this person he completely overlooks that ends his life. Slitting his throat open with his own dagger after he raped her and then throwing herself into the sea. History wouldn't even remember what she looked like.
When Moqorro mysteriously finds his way aboard and offers to treat the wound undoing all her work, perhaps it makes sense that The Dusky Woman recognizes the threat and hisses at him in a sudden fury, like a snake...

Victarion gave her the back of his good hand and knocked her to the deck. "Be quiet, woman. Wine for both of us." He turned to the black man. "Did the Vole speak true? You saw my death?" "That, and more." "Where? When? Will I die in battle?" His good hand opened and closed. "If you lie to me, I will split your head open like a melon and let the monkeys eat your brains." "Your death is with us now, my lord. Give me your hand."

What is dead may never die
But Victarion did die that day.
When Moqorro performs his ritual, maybe as a Fire Priest its not one that's meant to heal Victarion in the traditional sense, but is something more in his typical wheelhouse... given to glory R'hllor, he's trained to use a darker brand of magic...
The ritual scene of Moqorro is meant to make us feel uneasy... even if we're not sure why. The monkeys are driven mad, screeching and leaping overboard to their deaths, and the High Valyrian wailing draw us to think of Mirri Maz Duur's blood ritual with Khal Drogo.

The iron captain was not seen again that day, but as the hours passed the crew of his Iron Victory reported hearing the sound of wild laughter coming from the captain's cabin, laughter deep and dark and mad, and when Longwater Pyke and Wulfe One-Eye tried the cabin door they found it barred. Later singing was heard, a strange high wailing song in a tongue the maester said was High Valyrian. That was when the monkeys left the ship, screeching as they leapt into the water.

Magic generally has a cost. But what is the cost? At first its presented like an almost seemless, albeit ugly, recovery for Victarion. He raises his charred and blacked hand to the crew. Wisps of dark smoke rise from his fingers as he points to the Maester to have him sacrificed for good winds. Later once it has time to heal it would still look like 'pork crackling from elbow to fingertips' and when he closes his hand it would still split and smoke, and yet... the 'arm was stronger than it had ever been.'
This may fit the themes of fire magic we see from people like Melisandre and Beric. Melisandre seems imbued with this energy... but the more she lends herself to the flames the further she parts from her humanity.... that's the true cost.

The red priestess shuddered. Blood trickled down her thigh, black and smoking. The fire was inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, transforming her. Shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin, insistent as a lover's hand.

She barely needs to eat or sleep anymore, its rumored she is hundreds of years old. And as for how fire magic can be used to treat Victarion's poison... fire cleanses. That's what Melisandre tells us when she drinks the poisoned cup from Maester Cressen unaffected, her ruby necklace shimmering. Beric Dondarrion is another example of this power... each time he was revived by Thoros via the Last Kiss (which is the red priest ritual that involves filling their mouth with fire and breathing them into the deceased to revive them) he becomes a little less than he was before slowly forgetting who he was. "Fire consumes. It consumes, and when it is done there is nothing left. Nothing." And as GRRM notes: "he’s not a living human being anymore. His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins, he’s a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice..." And its this power he passes on to Lady Stoneheart.

Unsmiling, Lord Beric laid the edge of his longsword against the palm of his left hand, and drew it slowly down. Blood ran dark from the gash he made, and washed over the steel. And then the sword took fire.

Like Melisandre his blood has this power of fire in it. They are fire wights in a sense. Like Moqorro himself perhaps. And I think Victarion is now one too. So maybe Moqorro didn't save him truly, his death was with him just like he said... but he was transformed. Because Moqorro has glimpsed the glory that awaits him in the flames, he has a plan...

The Mystery of Dragonbinder
Dragonbinder. The hellhorn from the smoking wastes of great Valyria by Euron...

A twisted thing it was, six feet long from end to end, gleaming black and banded with red gold and dark Valyrian steel. Euron's hellhorn. Victarion ran his hand along it. The horn was as warm and smooth as the dusky woman's thighs, and so shiny that he could see a twisted likeness of his own features in its depths. Strange sorcerous writings had been cut into the bands that girded it. "Valyrian glyphs," Moqorro called them.

Moqorro translates the pieces of the glyphs to Victarion...
"Here the horn is named. 'I am Dragonbinder,' it says. 'No mortal man shall sound me and live.' ... 'Blood for fire, fire for blood.'
A grim warning that who blows the horn will die like the man at the Kingsmoot, so Victarions takes heed and in his partial Winds excerpt sets aside three young thralls on his ship to blow the horn once each on his command during the Siege of Meereen, promising that if they do and live he'll make freed men of them, give them wives, a bit of land, a ship to sail and thralls of his own. And.. he will even acknowledge and remember their names.

Who blows the hellhorn matters not. The dragons will come to the horn's master. You must claim the horn. With blood."

But reading into the glyphs... could Victarion actually blow the horn himself if the three boys fail? Having become a fire wight... is he still a mortal man? Beric and Melisandre certainly seem to flirt with mortality. And does he have fire for blood? His smoking wound hints that perhaps he's not. So he fits the inscription in a way. And I think that makes sense to the original intent... the horn is from Valyria, a place that seems to revolve around fire and blood magic. Fire and blood are the main elements to a lot of magic... they are the Targaryen words as well. Granted I don't think Valyrians have any ethical reservations at sacrificing someone each time they would want the horn blown if they needed to, but I think that they may have also had servants imbued with fire who could have sounded it multiple times.
Victarion sees his own likeness reflected in it the polished horn. And in the Winds excerpt he starts to have a mad thought as well....

He brushed his hand across one of the red gold bands and the ancient glyph seemed to sing beneath his fingertips. For half a heartbeat he wanted nothing so much as to sound the horn himself.

As the entry ends Victarion would not let Moqorro take the hellhorn away from him, but asks to keep it nearby him "until it is needed." As if it has its own allure to those with fire in their blood... like him, and like the dragons.
But if Victarion does blow the horn is he still its master? Or is he now the creature of Moqorro.... afterall it doesn't matter who blows the horn we are told. And even Moqorro is in service to Benerro, the high priest of R'hllor at the Red Temple of Volantis. Benerro is the one to send him out, presumably to ultimately help Daenerys, as he preaches to the crowds that she is Azor Ahai come again. Is this his attempt to bring the dragons back to help the slaves of Volantis burn the masters? The city is ripe for revolt it seems. But that doesn't mean it will go to his plan either... Victarion is also in service to Euron of the Iron Islands, so maybe Euron is arguably his master as well and has some control over the horn, or maybe the dragons themselves have some blood connection to the other two heads of the dragon (whoever they are bonded to in the world) and will gravitate to them instead. The master of the horn, like the essence of power, seems to be a riddle...
~Thanks for Reading~
Tldr: The Dusky Woman has been poisoning Victarion's bandages until Moqorro seemingly arrives to save him. But perhaps not by healing the wound in the traditional sense but by following a darker brand of magic instead, traits of which we've seen hinted at with Beric and Melisandre - letting him die and be revived, cleansing the poison and transforming Victarion into something less than human, a fire wight, the living dead. This form will allow Victarion to fit the inscryption on Dragonbinder, no longer mortal and with fire for blood. As the Ironborn approach the battle of Meereen he finds himself more and more drawn to the horn... But if he blows it and lives... is he still its master?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/business/dealbook/credit-suisses-investment-bank.html
Credit Suisse’s investment bank may vanish When UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse at a fire-sale price over the weekend, a big question was what would happen to the ailing firm’s investment bank. Months before the chaos that felled Credit Suisse, the firm had unveiled an ambitious plan to spin out the division, under the leadership of the veteran deal maker Michael Klein, as part of its now-failed turnaround effort.
The DealBook Newsletter Our columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and his Times colleagues help you make sense of major business and policy headlines — and the power-brokers who shape them. Get it sent to your inbox.
But it now looks like the investment bank will largely be dissolved, as UBS makes clear that it’s only interested in bits of the business, and as the Swiss government moves to bar some promised payouts to Credit Suisse’s bankers. What was once a top-flight shop of corporate advisers now appears to be a melting ice cube.
UBS probably won’t proceed with the Klein-led spinout, cutting off the most likely way of preserving big chunks of the investment bank. Under those plans, Credit Suisse would have purchased Klein’s advisory boutique, combining it with its own division and eventually spinning it out under the First Boston name. (Klein, who was on Credit Suisse’s board, would have received $175 million for his firm and was paid an additional $10 million for advising on Credit Suisse’s plan — terms that some at UBS reportedly saw as too favorable.)
UBS is now weighing whether to end that deal and how it would do so, DealBook hears. The writing had been on the wall since the takeover announcement: First Boston would have relied on capital from Credit Suisse to help fund equity and debt underwriting, and the UBS deal now makes that impossible.
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UBS has expressed interest in keeping some Credit Suisse investment bankers in key industries — technology, media and health care, among others — to augment its own advisory operations and complement its core wealth management business. But UBS executives have made clear they plan to run down Credit Suisse’s trading operations and limit the size of its overall investment banking arm.
Meanwhile, other Credit Suisse bankers have fewer reasons to stay. Unless they specialize in those particular sectors, their chances of being absorbed into UBS are murky at best.
Moreover, the Swiss government said yesterday that it would suspend deferred bonuses for Credit Suisse employees that were granted before 2022. (The bank can still pay cash bonuses for last year.) That compounds the pain for Credit Suisse staffers, who have already seen the value of their shares in their employer — as well as bonuses in the form of other securities linked to the bank’s performance — all but wiped out by the UBS deal.
This may make it harder for Credit Suisse to operate as though it’s business as usual, especially as anxious bankers call up recruitment firms to find jobs elsewhere.
In other Credit Suisse news, the bank went ahead with an investment conference in Hong Kong this week, featuring the T.V. personality Bear Grylls — and plenty of pathos.
In other banking turmoil news: Expect Jay Powell, the Fed chair, to face questions from Congress about why regulators missed warning signs at midsize lenders. First Republic has hired Lazard to help review its strategic options, while the government weighs additional backstops to encourage would-be rescuers of the firm.
HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING An unexpected surge in inflation in Britain complicates a move on interest rates. Consumer prices there rose 10.4 percent in February compared with a year earlier, accelerating after months of slowing down. That may undermine expectations that the Bank of England was close to halting rate increases as part of its inflation-fighting efforts; the central bank will announce its next policy decision tomorrow. Gamestop

So I´ve played this game for a while and came to understand most mechanics and the monsters behavior(On case files at least), so I´ve listed my opinions on them:
Smiley.
By itself smiley is very simple to deal with, especially if you crouch and back away slowly (only back for some reason), but dealing with it is only simple when is the only kind of monster present, after a while getting cases where you get only 1 monster become rare so if you roll a smiley in a case where there´s more than 1 monster it can have some awfull synergies. Particullary on monsters that activily chase you, and smiley is one of the fastests monsters in the case files when chasing you. So you are´nt out-running him unless you have a safe-spot nearby.
In short, you almost never wanna see it in a case file where you have multiples monster (there´s only a few exceptions where is more managable: centipede, clubfoot)
Witch.
She is one of my favorite monsters because her mechanic makes for a fair-play even when finding dead-ends while being chased (excluding very tight spaces), since you can temporaly stop her by blinding her. And her combined with most monsters doesn´t end up in theoretically undealable situations, making het one of the most well-balanced monsters.
(variant)Basically the same, only a bit harder since she is faster than you (not by much)
Clubfoot
It´s very common getting clubfoot on most case files but how hard is to deal with it can be vary depending on map(mainly on how wide are the general walk-ways) and monsters . After playing against it many times. There can be some wack situations where there was a wall but it detected you seeing its face, even when you can´t see it, or you basically looking at his eyes but not getting mad only if you look away fast, and only sometimes. But you can at least survive even if it chases you if you get away from it fast. Overall a well-balanced monster, with some annoying situations on higher difficulties
(variant)Finding the variant is a challenge on itself but it isn´t any diffent on how you deal with the regular one.
Wickerman
My least liked monster and the one that always makes the case an unfun chore even if alone, the balancing on this monster doesn´t feel like it works on any level, it spots you from far, its faster than you, the only way for it to stop its if you find a fireplace which is not something that works for any other monster so if anything else is giving chase you´re dead, so the only true safe spots are the universal ones. It feels like it shouldn´t spot you from that far or have a mechanic like the minerwhere it doesn´t see you from too far if you have your flashligh off.
Out of all the monsters I feel like this one needs a rebalancing the most, because it never is fun when you start a case and hear its noises
Crypt Zombies
If there is a monster that feels that spawns too many instances of it when it does spawn, it´s this one. When not chasing you it can feel that they take ages to move from a spot where you need to go, and that is if there aren´t more in that direction, and it definitely feels like they love tight corridors making them annoying when heading to unexplored areas. Perhaps if there weren´t as many instances of them when they spawn it will feel less of a chore dealing with them, even if they are pushovers by themselves. But I have yet to generate a non-custom map where the only type of monster spawned is this one
Pigman
Initially dealing with the pigman can be very hard if you don´t know how it works, even if you do, you don´t really wanna be chased. For starters wide corritors are you best friend. its charge attack is what makes the initial hurdle of dealing with it a workout. But then if you know how to deal with the charge you can take advantage of it, since it makes a second loud squeal when doing the charge its easy to know when to dodge, but then again there are unescapable situations mainly tight corridors, dead-ends, but overall a fairly balanced enemy for the difficulty its introduced in.
Scarecrow
Cornfield exclusive, the scarecrow is the "do you dare or not" since you don´t know if the thing is spawned even when you see scarecrows. It can be avoided fairly easy, but it is not always the case, since the scarecrows can be situated in places where the only way forward its right there. But it isn´t faster than you at the very leasts, but not slower either. But getting chased by it, is very situational and not optimal, I am very neutral towards this one, since you don´t really find it often unless you like the cornfield and alwals reroll for it
Centipede
By far the easiest monster to deal with. Even if it only spawns in the sewers you don´t get mad when it does, it never chases you nor puts you on unescapable situations, if you don´t pay attention you can get killed when its underground but that's about it. You can only get killed if you're distracted, and can be paired with any other monster without theoretically death situations (that requires both monsters, not map generation).
I like it, but it can make the sewers too easy if its the only type of monster spawned
Black bride
The mansion- exclusive maiden of death, and the only monster that bypasses walls and middle fingers your flares, her scream is a bit too loud, and escaping her can be sometimes a bit luck dependant, but the manor doesn´t allow too many bad situation (excluding smiley) which makes her appearance fairly balanced
Oni
The oni has flaws, like the wickerman, but the little shrines make up a better gameplay than the fireplaces since you can keep running and once the oni touches the sphere it will deaggro and stun it, not making it useless if there are other things chasing you other than oni's.
Trench Stalker
Like a pigman with worst peripherical vision, and a worst audio cues. The sounds of the stalkers only become stronger but unlike the pigman there's never directional audio cues for when its close, and when doing the charge attack its harder to know when it does it and you're not looking, unlike the pigman the stalker is completely silent when doing so, unlike when its chasing you. But the map where you find them originally is perhaps the worst for the charge type of mosters, filled with narrow corritors. Other than that they´re not much different from a pigman
Backroom's exclusive
Archiver:
The best description for this one is a zombie that can see you from a distance, since you don´t actually spawn in a safe room once you enter the backrooms, this one can be hard to shake off unless you can break line of sight for a while
Partygoer:
An enemy who has an initial fast sprint but not as threatening as clubfoot, and you escape the same way as you would escape one, but this one is slower and chases you even less time.
Overall backroom enemies aren´t as hard to deal with, but not having an initial safe-spot can make it a challenge
Summary:
I don´t like the Wickerman, nor the narrow corritors

Today I got a new Android device. I installed Sekai and successfully transferred my account. Everything checks out. All my cards, crystals, songs, everything looks good. Success! It even shows it already linked to my Google account, even though I didn't have to manually do it. Fantastic.
On the old device, I figured I would just create a new account just for kicks and giggles to play around with. I uninstalled and reinstalled the game. New account! Great!
I am signed into my main Google account on both devices, but both Sekai accounts are separate and only my main account shows linked.
I have Colorful Basic subscription. When I go to my main (old) account, it shows an active Colorful Basic, and it expires on April 2, as it should.
When I go to my new account and look at this, it ALSO says I have Colorful Basic and it expires on April 2.
This is strange. I also had Premium Pass but only my original main account shows that. The new one does not. That checks out.
I am wondering if you guys have seen this before. When April 3 rolls around, I am not sure what will happen. I mean, I guess I am not overly concerned. If there is weirdness, the worst case scenario is that I cancel the sub and renew it on the new device with my main account. Best case is that I have two accounts with Basic??