Disney has adapted their 1989 animated film, The Little Mermaid into a live action film with Rob Marshall directing, Dion Beebe providing the Cinematography, and songs written by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda. It stars Halle Bailey from The Lion King and the upcoming The color purple. Also starring Melissa McCarthy, Jonah Hauer-King from The Lion King, Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Raya and the Last Dragon. Last but not least is Javier Bardem from Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Ariel (Halle Bailey), is a mermaid who wants to live in the human world with Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), after saving him from a ship wreck. Ariel’s dad, King Triton (Javier Bardem) forbids it, which forces Ariel to make a dangerous deal with Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), a sea witch.
This version of the Little Mermaid isn’t 100 percent a copy of the original. They have made changes so that the film would stand out from the original. My favorite change was when Ursula’s tentacles lit up, I feel it illuminated her scenes. I thought they should have kept Flounder’s (Jacob Tremblay) color the same from the original film. Here I found his coloring a little weird.
At first I wasn’t sure about Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) due to him not looking like a normal crab but he won me over by playing his part well and delivering some funny lines. Ariel is my favorite Disney princess, so I was extremely happy that Bailey did a great job portraying Ariel. She sang “Part of your World” beautifully. Bardem wasn’t as convincing as he could have been playing King Triton, I feel he didn’t show how angry he was at Ariel when he was destroying her collection of human artifacts. In my opinion, the best performance in this film was McCarthy as Ursula, she can sing and she did an amazing job being menacing yet being someone audiences love. Just like Sebastian, Scuttle (Awkwafina) was funny. The song Scuttle and Sebastian sang together in the palace was really humorous. Hauer-King was a good prince Eric who got a little more of a story this time around. He and Ariel both wanted to explore uncharted places.
John Myhre, the production designer filmed the scenes on a blue screen, and the actors just preformed the swimming movements in the air. This was impressive!. All the scenes looked realistic under the sea. I would recommend any Disney fan to go see this live action Little Mermaid.

Trailer

• The scene opens with a Zandalari Troll Shaman preparing to cast a spell before a human rogue draws their blade and throws the dagger at the troll's chest. The screen focuses on the human, and the music begins with the "Blizzard presents part" over a waterfall. This scene is a parody of the Casino Royale Opening.
• Multiple shots show SI:7 agents infiltrating Zuldazar and taking out the Horde. One scene shows Flynn Fairwind and Mathias Shaw slowly sneaking through a treasure room. Matthias stabs a guard, then the characters' outlines turn to gold as it shows the throne of King Rastakhan.
• "We can't deny that war has turned our hearts cold, for now, it's time we play the Gambit of Gold." (Matthias, Flynn, and Jaina sing this together)
• The Screen goes black to reveal the expansion logo

Theme

• The Golden Gambit is an expansion based on the Battle of Dazar'Alor, but in the style of an old spy movie. SI:7 and the Kul'Tiran fleet are infiltrating the Zandalari capital as they plan to bring down Rastakhan.
• New Keyword: Strategize
  • Cards with Strategize gain bonuses when you satisfy the requirement while holding them.
  • Example- Strategize (Play 2 Murlocs): Gain Poisonous
    • Explanation: If you played two Murlocs while holding this card, gain Poisonous.
• Saboteurs: Saboteurs are cards that shuffle a negative spell into your Opponent's deck that casts when Drawn.
  • An example could be "Seaside Saboteur", which shuffles a spell that summons two random Pirates for your Opponent.

Class Themes

• Death Knights- The Forsaken Deathstalkers have intercepted some of the Alliance's plans, and have raised Alliance naval casualties into their bidding. Corpse and Rune based strategize synergies represent a more control-oriented approach, while Pirates have risen from the depths the buff your weaponry.
• Demon Hunters- Vol'Dun holds many secrets in the sand, and the Reliquary is working to harness them alongside exiled Zandalari Demoniacs. With Spell and Demon-based strategize cards, a true mastermind can harness the deserts against the Alliance.
• Druids- The Loa do not take kindly to intruders, especially Gonk and Pa'ku. Summon massive beasts through the power of your hero's fury, and plan your attacks with Strategize.
• Hunters- Espionage is a game of marksmanship and traps, and thus, Spell Hunter returns with more weaponry.
• Mages- Beware, Beware, the Daughter of the Sea! Jaina has rallied her homeland allies, and they come bringing cold to the tropics. Frost synergy/strategize and plenty of Freezing arrive with a little bit of Control Support through a taunt-summoning secret.
• Paladins- Rezan, the Loa of Kings has fallen to mysterious forces, and the Prelates have teamed up with Blood Knights for vengeance against all who have wronged them. Damage-Based Strategize calls back to Rastakhan's Rumble and MotLK, with damaging Holy Spells to bring retribution.
• Priests- Between the factions, two faiths are at war. The Horde brings the power of Bwonsamdi through Deathrattle and Shadow synergy, while the Alliance brings the Light through Overheal and Health Buffs ([[Inner Fire]] tokens.)
• Rogues- SI:7 has been the premier spy organization on Azeroth. Thus, they have perfected the art of espionage. Stealth synergy, low-cost spells with connected Strategize cards, and some of Flynn's weapon expertise make up the Rogue set.
• Shaman- While the Alliance and the Horde remain distracted, Azshara has planned something big for Zandalar. Naga forces have slithered upon the shrines of Gral and Akunda, and these two Loa are furious. Water-and-Lightning based Nature spells bring healing and board control, while a new Menagerie archetype comes into play with the Naga, Beast, and Elemental Tribes. (Beasts and Naga represent most of the new Shaman Minions, with both legends being Beasts).
• Warlocks- Zul the Prophet is the man behind it all in this set. He has made the King vulnerable in order to keep the Zandalari army distracted while he works with the Blood trolls to release Mythrax. Shadow-based Strategize, Fatigue, and Overdrawing represent the dark bargains in play, while sacrificed cards (overdrawn) gain bonus effects when burnt.
• Warriors- Shields Up! Both sides need a proper defense while they prepare to battle each other. Taunt and Armor represent the bulk of this theme, with Weapons that synergize with these mechanics.

I’ve never hated anyone before. Not my parents and grandparents who abused me, the partners that cheated on me (or the girls they cheated with), or even the terrible friends who fat-shamed me behind my back but were super nice to my face.
But the level of animosity I (29F) feel towards my sister-in-law (28F) is something I have never experienced before.
I grew up in poverty. I spent time on the streets as a teenager because I was fat, goth, and queer, and my parents weren’t supportive or loving in the slightest. And while I can admit that my in-laws are not exactly the most emotionally available or affectionate people, I have never once seen them fail to put their daughter’s needs above everyone else’s — including their son’s (30M) needs, who I am married to.
But if you were to ask her about her parents, everything she would have to say would be about how abusive and cold they were. Ask my husband, however, and he would say, “Oh they were. Just not to her.” My in-laws started going to therapy a few years ago and openly admitted to everything they put my husband through, right down to favoring his sister over him. It was an emotional breakthrough in their relationships and his bond with them has only grown stronger since then.
My sister-in-law sees this as them favoring him (and by extension, me) over her.
My in-laws are very wealthy people, and when my husband and I got married a few years ago, we were living with them due to roommates who would not comply with COVID restrictions, and at the time I was caretaking for my father with cancer. We were afraid to put off our ceremony any longer because of my father’s health and had a very small, backyard wedding in order to make sure he could be there.
Because we couldn’t have the wedding we always wanted, my in-laws decided that they wanted to buy us a house as a wedding gift. I didn’t want that because I didn’t want to feel like we owed them, but they said as long as we were open to letting my sister-in-law live in our basement, as she was leaving a toxic relationship at the time, they wouldn’t hold it over our heads. We agreed.
We never should have.
From the minute she moved in with us, she controlled everything. If she thought we would paint the walls a color she didn’t like, she would call her parents and complain. We wanted to get a second dog, and since she already had more than 10 pets and was told not to bring more into the home, she screamed that it wasn’t fair and threatened to harm herself over it. When we were trying to conceive, she said it was emotionally triggering for her because she believes she will never bare children of her own, so we reluctantly decided to stop trying.
Then she moved her new boyfriend (30M) into our house without asking. And we had never even met him.
He told us he had kids, but his ex fled the state with them and that he would be unlikely likely to bring them around. We encouraged him to pursue custody, while my sister-in-law would actively tell him, “You’ll probably never see them again anyway.” She’s an inherently pessimistic person in that way. It made me angry. Still, he stayed. And then he proposed. And then they got married.
And no, they didn’t move out. In fact, she started pressuring us to leave. She knew we wanted to move to a larger city, but I have two younger disabled siblings that I help my older sister care for, not to mentioned three nieces that I love as my own. When my nieces would come over to stay a weekend with me, my sister-in-law would complain and whine that she felt trapped downstairs because being around the kids was too “triggering” for her and her husband (who never complained to us about them being here). When she accused them of being so loud that it “nearly killed one of her rabbits” (even though they were on two separate ends of the house and her husband said they didn’t actually hear much of anything), I finally hit my limit when my father-in-law said, “It’s for the best if you just don’t bring the girls over there for the night again.”
And then, just a couple weeks ago, they received full custody of his kids and she has rubbed it in my face non-stop since they got here.
“I can’t believe I get to be a mom. It’s so amazing.”
But the second the kids go to bed for the night, she comes to my husband complains that they are too energetic and out of control. She complains that her husband is spoiling them too much and is a lazy father. He works full time and is on-call during the weekends. She doesn’t do anything at all for work, but mothering and chores are apparently “totally breaking her down”.
This woman knows that I am struggling with my reproductive health because I am chronically ill, and that my husband and I have been wanting to start our family for fucking years. And then a family just falls into her lap and not only does she have the audacity to complain about it, she even had the nerve to say to my face on Mother’s Day, “I’m just not optimistic about it. If I can’t have kids of my own physically I don’t see how you ever can.”
She is the most manipulative, entitled, and selfish person that I have ever met. She never thinks of anyone besides herself, and she never does a single thing unless it also benefits her.
And now, on top of everything else, we have to leave our house because the state won’t let them keep the kids if they don’t have them “in the proper space”, and having two separate families sharing a four bedroom, two bathroom house isn’t the “proper” space. And according to my in-laws, well, “Since you guys don’t have kids yet, they kind of need that house more than you do.”
My husband is insisting that we use this time to move to a new city, like we’ve wanted, but we have nothing financially prepared and we only have weeks before we have to be out. And that means getting no time to say goodbye to my family, not even my nieces, before we go.
I blame my sister-in-law for this. For all of this. I lost out on a puppy because of her, on time with my family because of her, and on committing to fertility treatments because of her. She has made my life a living fucking Hell, and I don’t want anything to do with her ever again.
Ever. Period.
TL;DR: My sister-in-law moved in with my husband and I a few years ago, and all she has done is fight to manipulate and control everything that happens in my house and in my life. Her actions have directly affected everything from my husband and I not getting a second dog, to whether or not we have kids of our own, and now I have to move away from my family because she is taking ownership of my house. I feel like she’s tried to ruined my life and I don’t ever want to see her face or hear her voice again once we move out.

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Tldr: My friend has been living with me for 2 years rent and bill free, we fight a lot, I think he’s gaslighting me and I am getting angry, emotional and frustrated with the situation and want to kick him out, but I know he is going through a rough time with family and other life issues, plus my daughter sees him as a dad so don’t want to make a rash decision throwing him out. Apologies for any rambling but I want to give as much context as possible for a fair judgement. Also apologies for any spelling or grammar mistakes, it's like 2 am and I'm tired. I (24f) have had my friend (32m) living with me and my daughter (3f) on and off for 2 years, for the sake of the story we will call him Lee. Our relationship has heavily deteriorated and I feel like I am making rash decisions out of anger. Lee originally came to stay with us when he was evicted during the pandemic and was living in a hotel, I invited him to stay with us as I had a spare room at the time since my daughter was too young for her room. I rent, not own, and he lived with us for 7 months before we were evicted due to him staying with me and not being on the tenancy. After being evicted, my daughter and I spent 7 months homeless and couch-surfing between different family and friends' houses until I finally managed to secure a new home. At this time Lee was also couch surfing, when I finally found a new place I felt bad and invited him to come and stay with us again for what was meant to be a short period but ended up being a year. He sleeps on my couch as now my daughter is old enough she needs her room and space. In terms of the financial dynamic of the relationship. I took extended maternity leave when my daughter was born until after the pandemic calmed down early last year. After my maternity support ran out and I had to hand in notice at my job I received government support for my rent and living costs. After my rent is paid I have just shy of £400 a month to live off a month, paying all other bills and feeding and caring for myself and my daughter, when Lee moved in this was my financial situation. I rejoined the workforce last January ans was working for most of last year until I had to leave my job in August due to very poor mental health. Since then, I have struggled to stay in work and do agency work, working maybe 1-3 days on a good week and not at all when my depression is at its worst. Since he first came to stay with us, I have covered all the bills rent, utilities, and most of the food and occasionally helped him out when he needed money. Until December last year, Lee was doing occasional freelance work with very inconsistent money. He would help with putting food in the fridge or WiFi bills as and when he could, but it was not consistent. Last December I helped him to get a job at my agency and he since has been working full-time. I am frustrated with the financial side of this situation as nothing has changed or improved since he started work nothing has improved. I know I am not entitled to his hard-earned money, but I feel he being really selfish with his money when it comes to me and the household. He sends his mum money every payday without fail, but will occasionally give me £50 towards the household. He goes out a lot after work to bars and clubs and buys himself things, I’ve found a casino membership in his name when cleaning, which he claims is to just get in and hang with friends, which is an obvious lie. He mentioned in passing that he has been saving to buy a house. I was actually fuming when he mentioned that even in times when we were struggling he had money, he just had it in an ISA and couldn’t withdraw according to him. I also overheard him in a conversation saying that he has 5 figures in savings. This was just a kick in the gut but I am clearly too forgiving since he is still here. I have broken down my financial situation to him so he knows how things are, but his constant line is that he sends his mum money every week to take care of her, even though he is living in my home rent free not hers. I know it sounds jealous and vindictive but I’m the one whose roof he is living under now and it cooking and cleaning but he will send her who knows how much every week but get antsy with me if I ask him for a contribution to the Wifi bill. To put it in perspective he makes at least £3k a month before tax and tips, whereas my income is £1,780K and my rent alone is £1,400. I am ridiculously frustrated at this by this and it isn’t our only issue. Now I will say I am not completely innocent in our conflicts. I suffer heavily from depression, ADHD and ASD which until very recently hasn’t been treated by professionals. I have my up and down days, pretty intense mood swings where I can snap over minor things, not to mention rising a toddler as a single parent, I am a complete mess. My biggest issue is my house is beyond a state, it's borderline a hoarder's mess and I just can’t cope with maintaining it. Some days I struggle to get out of bed and the mess just keeps piling and piling up. Some days I can clean one, maybe 2 rooms, but by the time I have the energy and drive to clean again the whole house is a mess again and I’m back to square one. Lee and I argue about this often. He used to try and help with some things but would do a half-assed and I would get upset, like loading the dishwasher and leaving the rest of the kitchen a mess, or taking all the mess out of the rest of the house and dumping it into my toddler's bedroom. He stopped helping at all after a while because he said I was a control freak, and I can admit I can be a bit controlling at times if I don’t agree with the way he is doing something. There have been times I have asked him for help and he will turn around and say it’s not his mess so he isn’t helping it’s mine and my daughters so my responsibility to clean up. While this is true he knows I am struggling and will do nothing but sit there and complain otherwise. He complains a lot and his words and actions are driving me insane. Aside from the household maintenance complains about everything and constantly makes not-so-subtle digs and insults at me which make me feel like crap when I am already heavily depressed and suicidal at times, and then will turn around and ask me why I’m in a mood. Some examples of things he has said: - He is surrounded by idiots at work and at home - I’m a mess, this is why he could never date a woman like me, I don’t live up to his standards - Why would I trust you when you look like this/act like this etc. Usually in reference to when I get upset and just snap at him, - He will say I throw his words in his face if I bring up anything he has said in the past to his face but will do the same to me - He used the fact that I’ve been r'd and abs in arguments before “I didn’t r you and I haven’t hit you around so what is your problem with me” These are just a few examples. On top of that,I feel like I am being gaslit and constantly invalidated. He always disregards my feelings when I am trying to explain things to him or talk to him about how I am feeling. He will say he doesn’t want my explanations or he doesn’t care about my feeling. He will make really snarky comments if I give him a long-winded answer to something and say he didn’t want my explanation. He has straight up said F my feelings before and he doesn’t care about my feelings. He belittles my pain and complains I’m always sick, which I feel like I am. I am having lots of complications since having my daughter, from 3-month-long periods, to what is thought might be endometriosis or ovarian cysts, my doctors are messing me around and I always feel physically rotten on top of my mental health and he makes it sound like my pain is nothing. I genuinely feel like he is gaslighting me too, and I feel like I am losing my mind, a few examples: - He got me an Instax mini camera which I have always wanted, a few days later it disappeared and he says he saw my daughter playing with it and it must have gotten thrown in the bin. I got really upset at my daughter, dived into our buildings bins and tore open bags looking for it and he watched me get upset and mad and dig through rubbish, commenting that he will just buy a new one. A couple of days later I found a tab open for its sale price at our local tech shop on his computer and when I looked in his history it was from the same day it went missing. To this day he still blames it on my daughter. - One morning I woke up to a weird noise in my house, he had already gone to work and I went crazy over it. When I finally found it, it was his PC speaker which usually sits on the table, buried in a trunk of his clothes making weird sea noises and on full volume. He claims that it was malfunctioning and he put it there to get sleep and forgot about it when he went to work. When I found it, it turned right off when I pressed the off button. - I have hocks for all my hats on the side of my wardrobe, a few times I have come home from being away and found all my hats thrown on top of my wardrobe, but he claims to never have touched them. On top of that after my last trip away for almost a month, I found an open condom wrapper down the back of my bed when cleaning, even though he claims he never has brought anyone to my home. - He tries to tell me I don’t remember things said in conversations when I clearly remember them and is quick to call me dumb when I challenge him. - My doorbell keeps being turned off and he blames it on my daughter, I thought it was her until it was switched off when I came back from a month-long trip. We constantly argue almost daily, with some just devolving into screaming matches and some in front of my daughter. Whenever I try and remove myself from the situation he will either follow me or carry on yelling from the other room and complain I am running away from the situation. Our arguments have gotten physical before, one day I snapped and got into his face, swore at him, called him names and poked him in the chest. He followed me into the bathroom and wouldn’t leave when I told him to. I began pushing him out and he kept pushing back in, I ended up shutting his hand in the door and scratching him trying to get him to move so I could close it and he says I attacked him and made him bleed. There was no malice in my actions I just wanted to be left alone. He punched a hole in my wall once. I had a guest coming over but hadn’t told him as he wasn’t even supposed to be home. I woke from a nap to hear him dragging things into the hallways and jumped up and said “Don’t move those out here” Before, I could even finish and explain why he had punched the wall and was screaming at me that my ways of doing things don’t work and I’m such a control freak, even though he didn’t even let me finish my sentence or get a word in. He blames me and said it was my fault because he is triggered by past actions and still to this day says it’s my fault. I’m just exhausted and feel like I don’t have a single safe or happy place in this world with him in my home. I really enjoy it when he is at work but just dread him coming home. It isn’t all bad though. He occasionally helps around the house. Has helped with my daughter feeding and entertaining her more times than I can count when I was sick or tired or busy. He has followed me to events and supported me, helped me build my career. We have had a lot of fun and laughs, and even though his help with my daughter hasn’t changed, our whole dynamic has. He is cold towards me now, has no time for me with anything, and can be condescending at times. On top of lying when he doesn’t need to lie to me, which I find how easy he feels he can lie to my disturbing. What he doesn’t realise is that he is an awful liar and I can always tell. What has led me to write this post is today I came home with my daughter to find him with some random guy I have never met before in my house. He brushed me off when I got upset because he got upset that he brought a stranger into my home where my small child lives. Not even my best friend came to my home or even knew where I lived until my birthday which was like 8 months in. He tried to say to me he told me he was bringing him over which is a lie, he asked if I was home and if he could borrow my laptop but said never mind when I said I wasn’t home, and that he would follow his friend home and double back. He didn’t even apologise and had the nerve to ask me what my problem is. I have never been so angry at another person and mad such malicious thoughts then I had tonight so I thought I need an outside perspective. At the start of the month, I asked him to leave by the end of the month, but a few days ago he was attacked on his way home from work and beaten within an inch of his life. I feel bad asking him to leave now when he’s having such a rough time. The only reason I haven’t asked him to leave before is because my daughter adores him, he is more of a dad to her than her dad and she loves him like a father and they have a great relationship. I don’t want to hurt her but I don't know if I should even bother trying to make this situation work. I don’t even know what to say to him or how to speak to him anymore without it divulging into an argument. What is the best course of action from here?

Ok so, I need to make this to clarify my previous post.
A lot of Atheists here seem to be of the under that they have any sort of morality, and that the morality is comparable to an objective. So here is why that's impossible.
First of all a few assumptions. When I describe an Atheist, I am describing a Naturalist / Materialist, in which most Atheists are. Although yes it's possible to be an atheist and still believe in the immaterial, that is different (particularly as if you are one of those people there is way more ontological implications as such that must be explored which will lead to either deism or a specific religion).
Naturalists believe in only the natural world. They also believe conciousness is natural but is yet to be discovered how exactly it works.
Most people refer to "limiting of suffering" or "promotion of well-being" based off of "empathy" as ideas for what a moral system without God can be.
These ideas are inherently consequentialist, as it believes between two actions, the consequences of one of them will create less suffering while another one will create more.
So I'm sure most of you guys recognise the limitations of consequentialism. In that:
We have no perception of the final consequence (butterfly effect) to ever determine what it is to make any judgement to begin with.
We don't have the ability to determine whether a specific outcome is ultimate a + for wellbeing or a - for wellbeing, as everyone's definition for wellbeing is different.
So now this leads up to the second part of this. By what basis does one determine what promotes wellbeing and what doesn't.
Even the ancient Greeks had many different theories. Stoicism, Hedonism etc. And none of those were complete.
No matter what metric you claim to determine wellbeing, there will always be an exception or an inconsistency.
If there is a "natural law" that humans gear towards, then that determines that there is a supernatural being responsible for that law. If we evolved to be in this sort of way, that is not indicative that is it morally right in any sort of way. Following what we evolved to do does not promote an overall moral society.
Thus any quality that you base your morality on has no foundation (as ultimately the foundation is purely natural and changing like evolution). For example, empathy does not work as not all beings
Is empathy is the basis, then it doesn't account for sociopaths, who don't have such ability. (Some people didn't evolve with the capabilities to determine what should be a universal moral system, what if 60% of the world were sociopaths, then this moral system would be different).
So then I think it's safe to say that there is no objective morality that can be found in the natural.
So what about the subjective?
Why don't we simply define morality as wellbeing and see where that takes us? As time goes on we can refine the definition and change it as seems fit. Maybe one day we wake up and realise that wellbeing is a terrible definition and complete change it.
That is totally fine, but in saying this you admit that there is no foundation for this moral system and that it is purely a social construct.
You cannot truly call it morality. If I kill a baby you cannot truly rationalise why what I did was wrong as I could find many ways to justify, under the subjective belief, that was I did was "right" i.e I believe he was baby Hitler, Or that the baby was using up resources on the planet and thus killing him would be beneficial to the planet.
If my morality is different to your morality then that cannot be used as the foundation for a societies morality. This is the product of modern relativism, which can be fine for the individual (go construct your own world ig) but falls apart when constructing a morality fit for the planet.
There is no world where any sort of subjective morality can ever be compared to any objective moral claim. The problem of evil is not consistent as there is no problem of evil if there is no concrete definition of evil. In one century one may use x as proof of the problem of evil, while in another century that same proof would be accept by society as moral and thus it is no longer proof of something evil existing.
As I said in my previous post, the idea that Bible says X but does Y is a different conversation. I wish to merely talk about the claim of atheists making a claim that an action (like children's bone cancer) is inherently evil and then using it as proof of contradiction. What I'm wanting to discuss is the claim "Bible says X is bad but X exists therefore God isn't omnibenevolent therefore Abrahamic religions are incoherent"
And in saying that, in my previous post. I talked about how evil is defined in Christianity (as a rejection of God and it's biproducts), and thus how there is no specific claim towards whether or not children's bone cancer is evil or not and how you cannot use an naturalistic basis to say that it is evil.

In this post as the title states, I'll be recapping and giving my analysis on what I noticed with the Dallas Wing's 3rd game today which was against the Chicago Sky.
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Part #1 - Offense:
Arike Ogunbowale: Arike single handedly lost the came for the Wings today. If we take a look at her stats, she scored 27 points which was a team high, got 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. However, these stats greatly inflate her performance on the court today. Arike scored 27 points on 25 shot attempts, went 9 - 25 (36%) from the field, and 4 - 12 (33.33%) from beyond the arc. This was a very inefficient performance from the Wings' leading scorer. I know Arike has never really been known to be an efficient shooter and that she's known for being a volume shooter but this game was just another level of inefficient. She was taking the worst shot opportunities starting from the get go in the 1st quarter, which was a foreshadowing of things to come. Pretty much every time that she got the ball, Arike was chucking it up. It didn't matter to her whether there were 3 defenders in the paint waiting for her to come in or whether there was a defender draped over her while taking a jumper. Don't get me wrong, Arike is a fantastic offensive player but her inefficiency and unwillingness to take better looking shots is what's dragging her down as well as her team and it was very evident from this game. There were multiple shots which she took this game were I honestly if I was the head coach, I would have pulled her from the game. One example off the top of my head was about mid to late 4th quarter when the Sky were only up by around 5 to 7 points. Arike brings the ball up the court, gets a screen from Sabally and while the defenders switch and are still near Arike, she ends up taking a one legged contested three and missing everything but backboard. There were many other examples such as rushing transition shots just to get to shot of and taking heavily contested jumpers. I've mentioned before in some of my previous Wings' game analysis posts that Arike just seems to have a constant itch to shoot the ball. Furthermore when she either misses or doesn't get the opportunity to shoot the ball, she gets very upset, which brings me to my next point about her mental game. Arike's mental game is weak. If things aren't going her way or her shots aren't falling, she fails to ever stop and think why that's so. Instead, she'd rather continue taking bad looking shots, which leads to her getting mad at herself and the cycle starts all over again. Honestly, I'm fine with Arike taking 20 - 30 shots per game if she wants to since I know her offensive capabilities. My only thing I wished she'd do if she's taking that many shots per game is to take good looking shots and not force shots just because she can. Furthermore, I wished she also realized when enough is enough. If her shots aren't falling, either stop taking shots for a little, recompose, and shoot again or pass to your teammates. Compared to last game, Arike was a downgrade for the Wings and you'd only know by watching the game since, as mentioned before, her box stats inflate how good she may have looked this game. Overall, she was the primary reason the Wings lost today and I just hope down the stretch that she wakes up and uses her team to its full potential than thinking that she's the only person on the team and that she should do it all by herself.
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Satou Sabally: Sabally was most definitely the MVP of the Wings today. She had the best game overall in terms of both offense and defense. She ended the game with 24 points on 9-16 shooting (56.25%) and had 8 rebounds. Unlike Arike, Sabally has a great well-rounded offense. She can take the three when necessary and hit the mid rangers jumpers efficiently. Furthermore, she is great in taking the ball into the paint and getting an easy bucket with her footwork and size. On the defensive end, Sabally also did quite nice. While she didn't really have the stats to back it up, she always provided great pressure against whoever she was defending and secured the defensive rebounds for the team when Natasha Howard was occupied. The offense should run through Sabally more often as she has great IQ in terms of what to do with the ball when it gets in her hands.
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Natasha Howard: Howard did decent this game, ending with 14 points on 6-16 (37.5%). Her efficiency, like Arike, wasn't the best but atleast her shot quality was much better than that of Arike's. Furthermore as I've mentioned in my previous 2 Wings' game analysis posts, Howard is being limited in her production as she is using her energy to play high energy roles both on the offense and defense. In a general WNBA, most shots come from within the paint. Therefore for Howard, she's in charge of both guarding the paint and preventing shots from making in that range as well as offensively taking shots in the paint to score. She doesn't really have much other help defensive wise in the paint asides from Sabally sometimes so Howard gets tired easily as she's constantly playing high-level offense and high-level defense. Teaira McCowan still being out is a big blow to the Wings but most importantly to Howard as she is the sole person being relied to do work in the paint for both offense and defense. I definitely think once McCowan comes back that Howard's offense will take a rise as she doesn't have to put that much energy and focus on the defense as McCowans can help her out then. The only issue is however that McCowans hasn't played in the past two games and is expected to miss the month of June to play overseas. If that still pans out, then Howard is going to be in for a very rough month.
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Rest Of The Team: I thought the rest of the team offensively did just ok. Dangerfield stepped up this game as well and provided 11 points on 4-8 (50%) from the field. Besides her and the starters however, nobody else scored more than a few buckets here and there. Burton did poor today offensively going 0-5 (0%) from the field and having only 2 points, both of which were from free throws. Then again to be fair, the bench really didn't play many meaningful minutes and Arike was chucking shots so there wasn't really many opportunities to shoot for everyone else. The one thing that I did like was that Maddy Siegriest got a little more playing time today. She score 6 points on 2-2 (100%) from beyond the arc in only 7 minutes. She's definitely a dangerous scorer when she gets the minutes so I'm curious to be seeing how that goes on throughout the season. I thought Siegrist should have been the #1 overall pick in this year's rookie draft going into the draft so I do think the Wings got a steal with her at #3. As she gets more minutes and develops more, I could definitely see her becoming a reliable scoring option off the bench for the Wings.
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Part #2 - Defense:
Natasha Howard: Once again, I thought Howard did decent on defense. She was getting outplayed a bit against Elizabeth Williams as she was able to use her height and size to her advantage against Howard in the paint. Howard ended up with 2 blocks and 1 steal in the game. As mentioned previously however, we won't be able to see the full capabilities of Natasha Howard until Teaira McCowans is back in the starting lineup. Howard has to conserve her energy as she's expected to play a primary role in both the team's offense and defense with very little help on the defensive end in the paint with McCowans not there. Especially in this game, Howard looked very tired and the Sky were able to capitalize on this in the second half as they pounded away in the paint on the offense.
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Rest Of The Team: I thought the team did alright once again. The Wings' defense was able to lock up Courtney Williams for most of the game which was good. Furthermore, I loved how the defense kept moving around and switching on plays. There were moments in the game where the Wings got help defense in the paint and left an open person for the Sky. As the ball moved around to that open person, the Wings' players all shifted over to the open player until the defense was set up back to normal again. This was a good sign because it felt that the team was playing defense together rather than individual players playing defense at times. Furthermore after allowing Mabrey to go off from beyond the arc in the first quarter, the Wings' perimeter defense tightened up very nice in the second half which is a good sign as well. Help for Howard in the paint is the main issue for the Wings defense so hopefully someone can step up in that regard.
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Dallas Wing's Defensive Shot Breakdown: I've mentioned this in a couple of posts but I've noticed a pattern in the WNBA which I call the 50-30-20 rule. Essentially, this means that 50% of all shots taken and points scored by a team are in the paint, 30% of all shots taken and points scored by a team are in the mid-range, and 20% of all shots taken and points scored by a team are from behind the arc. Therefore, I'll be listing how the Dallas Wings' defense affected from where the Storm were forced to take their shots and score their points from just like in my previous game analysis.
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Paint: 20 - 39 - 52% of all shots taken and 54.05% of all points scored (not with free throws)
Mid Range: 8 - 17 - 22.66% of all shots taken and 21.62% of all points scored (not with free throws)
3 Point: 6 - 19 - 25.33% of all shots taken and 24.32% of all points scored (not with free throws)
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By looking at these breakdowns, we can see tat the Wings' defense wasn't all that great. They managed to allow the Sky to reach the 50-30-20 goals for nearly all the zones, especially the paint zone. There was a slight difference in the mid range and beyond the arc as the Wings forced the Sky to take a little more shots from beyond the arc than mid range shots. However, that's wasn't really that big of a difference. Allowing 52% of all shots taken and 54.05% of all points scored (aside from free throws) in the paint was the biggest downside of the Wings' defense, even if it was a small percent change. Whenever these percents go higher than 50% for the area inside the zone, the defense has for the most part lost. Paint defense is always the most important defensive zone to be taken care of. In this game however, the Sky were able to do better and take advantage of the Wings defense in the paint, leading to the win for them.
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Final Recap: Overall, the Wings played just average today. I know there's a lot more potential for this team and it just depends on whether they can make the necessary adjustments and changes. The Sky was also the first "good team" I'd say that the Wings played so far this season so this was a good indication to see how the future games look for the Wings as a whole. The most important takeaways from this game in my opinion are that Arike needs to be much smarter when the ball is in her hands and the Wings need to figure out some help for Howard on the defensive end while Teaira McCowan is injured. The Wings didn't get blown out this game and only lost by 6 points, which is two possessions. Maybe if a couple of Arike's chucked shots were thought through better, the outcome could have been different but we'll never know. After today's loss to the Sky, the Wings are now 2-1 in the season. They play the Minnesota Lynx in two days so hopefully changes can be made accordingly.

Timestamp- https://imgur.com/a/dzaiqlC
Hello Swappers,
Got a few gems for you this lovely Sunday evening. As always YOLO takes priority over PM. Payment will be PP FF or Apple Pay.
First up is my Hinderer Fatty. She’s stonewashed and wearing a full texture ti stonewashed HH Hinderer scale. I am not the first owner and I have carried it a couple of times but it’s in overall very good condition. It’s on bearings and the action is phenomenal. Comes with tri way parts, original box and original g10 scale and liner. I will entertain separating the knife and scale but the scale itself will be $350. Knife with liner and g10 scale will be $350. Price for everything $650
Pics- https://imgur.com/a/XrUVhvo Vid- https://imgur.com/a/By9e2Af
Second on the block is a Buck 110 auto. I picked this up unused here on the swap and I carried and lightly used it (opened a couple of packages) a couple of times. Comes with original leather sheath.
Pics- https://imgur.com/a/meEftGT Vid- https://imgur.com/a/79seaXu Price- was $135 now $120
Next up is my Rexford RUT. Another gem I got on the swap and I hate to part with it but I’m more inclined to carry my TPT so this one’s gonna go.
Pics- https://imgur.com/a/vOb8ff3 Price- was $135 now $120
Ok so as I’m typing this I have decided to keep Saga 5153 and let go of 5266. 5266 is in like new condition and comes with the Nanuk case, extra refill and Grimsmo pocket book.
Pics- https://imgur.com/a/AGIN4Oy Price- $310 Withdrawn
Last up for tonight is a BNIB Lost Dutchman Finnigan wallet. Just got this in and upon opening it I already know I prefer my Big Finn so I’ll pass this along at a little discount and faster shipping since they are 4 weeks out atm.
Pics- https://imgur.com/a/7YDXjM2 Price-was $45 now $40
As always thanks for looking. Happy Memorial Day weekend!!

https://thewest.com.au/sport/fremantle-dockers/craig-odonoghue-walyalups-jye-amiss-is-worth-weight-in-gold-thanks-to-set-shot-goalkicking-accuracy-c-10795249
The footy world needs to start talking about the magnificence of Jye Amiss’ set shot goalkicking.
The Walyalup (Fremantle) forward is the beacon of hope amid an industry which is struggling to seize opportunities in front of the big sticks.
Time and time again we are watching players missing set shots. Yet Amiss has now kicked a goal from 10 of his last 11 set shots.
It’s an extraordinary figure which belies what we are seeing elsewhere. If you’re a Dockers midfielder streaming through the centre of the ground, it must be an amazing feeling to know that your key forward is so reliable once he has the ball in his hands.
Make no mistake, Walyalup’s seven-point win over Narrm on Saturday was achieved through accuracy from their set shots.
The Dockers had 11 set shots for the day and kicked nine goals. Melbourne had 14 and booted five. The Demons’ tally included shots that failed to even score.
The contrast was clear late in the match. Kossie Pickett missed with 7:20 remaining and 10 points the difference. Three minutes later, Jacob van Rooyen also missed to reduce the deficit to nine points. And with 65 seconds left, Angus Brayshaw also missed a set shot opportunity.
When the Dockers had chances in front of goal, they made the moment count.
Amiss was recruited with everyone knowing that he was an accurate kick. He booted 65.22 while playing colts footy for East Perth.
But it’s one thing to be accurate on a Saturday morning when playing with your mates, it’s another to stand up under the pressure of AFL with thousands of people at the ground.
HIs technique is unique. Amiss is slow and steady with his momentum only building late in his approach. It’s a repeatable action and one he is clearly confident in.
Amiss is a teenager in his second season. He’s played 13 games. Players with more experience would love to be kicking like him.
On Friday night, Carlton had 10 set shots and kicked only three goals from them.
West Coast had 11 set shots on Saturday night for four majors. The Western Bulldogs sprayed three of their set shots so badly against Gold Coast that they didn’t even score.
On Sunday, Ken Hinkley must have been going crazy watching his team dominating the final quarter against Richmond and being unable put them away. Darcy Byrne-Jones missed a set shot with 14 minutes left and then didn’t even want to take the next opportunity he got moments later.
Lachie Jones then missed with eight minutes remaining and instead of the Power having a match winning lead, they were in front by only 11 points after kicking 8.17.
I’ll repeat. Amiss has nailed 10 of his last 11 set shots.
Imagine being a defender playing on him. There’s enormous pressure knowing that if he takes a mark, the ball will almost certainly be sailing through for a goal.
Clubs spend days analysing games looking for any type of edge on the opposition. Recruiters endure cold, wintry days trying to find talent. Players put their bodies on the line trying to get the ball forward. It’s soul destroying when opportunities are missed.
Athletes around the world struggle when the game stops and everyone focuses on them.
Whether it’s serving in tennis, a free throw in basketball or pulling out the driver in golf, executing skills in a controlled environment somehow seems harder that doing it under pressure. The mind plays tricks, and when one player misses, suddenly the pressure builds on everyone else.
We’ve seen it happen on massive stages. West Coast kicked 8.13 in the 2015 grand final. But Dom Sheed became a hero with a set shot goal which will live on forever in 2018.
The Dockers booted 8.14 in their 2013 grand final loss. Hawthorn lost in 2012 after kicking 11.15 to Sydney’s 14.7.
St Kilda fans remember their 9.14 in the 2009 grand final, while Geelong fans will never forget Cam Mooney missing a set shot on the half-time siren on grand final day in 2008. That was a massive moment.
Which brings us back to Amiss. He’s a kid, but he’s the future. Key forwards who kick goals earn a hell of a lot of money throughout their careers. Key forwards who take marks and then miss their chances earn plenty too, and constantly leave their fans immensely frustrated.
We celebrate a lot of things in footy. The high mark is awesome. The courage to keep your eyes on the ball is amazing. Dribbling goals from the pocket makes your head spin.
But the reliability of lining up for goal with a set shot and sending the ball directly over the umpire’s head time and time again, is the thing that truly matters. Amiss doesn’t miss and that makes him an incredibly valuable commodity.

Not the first to bring this up, but one of the most obvious, apparent things about being pro-choice is... CHOICE.
Like first and foremost anyone who says pro-abortion is real is telling you conservative bullshit. Few if anyone are pro abortion. Since that would claim that these people will then try to instate laws that force women to abort rather than respecting their ability to choose.
But it's not that. It's pro choice. Trying to instate laws which give pregnant women the ability and responsibility to choose the right course of action. It's a stance that is (ironically) very individualistic and based on freedom absolutism, everything conservatives want to be.
This means women have the power to choose... to not abort! To have a child, children! A whole set of 4 or more if they're a lunatic! Everyone should hear pro-choice and breathe a sigh of relief. Those who want with all their heart to be the ones to raise children, even the ones they see as "broken", they get to do exactly that. And the women who do not want to bring someone into this world only to be met with pain and poverty, they also get to do exactly that.
So what gives, if everyone gets what they want, everyone's happy, right?
Not the christians...
Christianity is based on a fundamental factor of abuse, if people besides you are happy and capable of good, you are unhappy, since you are no longer superior and subjugating them.
Christians, and also conservatives as a whole, MUST have people under their thumb. Not so much for the sadism in pressuring them, but rather for the peace of mind that everybody (but me) is following the rules and bringing about "peace" and "good" or "righteousness".
But then... now it's two motives, they can't let others become superior than their miserable life (via....... basic rights and freedoms), and they cannot withstand others doing things they deem immoral and vile. So the quiet part becomes "We want to control you monsters" and the mask becomes "You're doing BAD HORRIBLE DEMONSTRABLE THINGS!"
And since christianity is a culture that follows one source which is never backed up or criticized, they have all right to be stubborn and idiotic, it's what got them stuck in this religion in the first place!
...
I don't have a conclusion exactly, so let's awkwardly transition to what are you thoughts? How do you see this whole mess of ignoring the obvious to defend the abusive?

Yea, one of these. Rambles for your Sunday read.
It's almost been one month since the man who claimed to "love love me" ghosted me out of nowhere.
A man who I've been involved with for 2 years (almost 4 years since I've known him and our long break due to my Dday). We reconnected after his divorce.
I had high hopes when we reconnected. My love for him had remained and if anything the pedestal I had him on was even higher now somehow.
Our time a part let me romanticize him more and built him into something he wasn't.
So this time around, when he seemed bitter possibly from his divorce (they divorced when we were NC and not because of our affair) and he was getting shorter and more impatient than ever with me, I was left confused at his seemingly misdirected anger and bitterness.
The man who could tell me I was "his perfect woman" was now inconsistent and flakey. The man who claimed he wanted a future with me and to build a family together, now couldn't return texts or calls in a timely manner.
I wondered where my once stable, best friend was? The man who knew me inside and out and was there for me during the worst, the man who claimed he never connected with anyone like me-- and the man who made me feel beautiful and sexy for the first time in 10+ years. The man who gave me constant affirmation and all the right words. The man who I could talk to for hours and knew exactly what I needed to turn me on. He said he was putty in my hands, but I felt the same about him. I was grateful for him and he would proclaim how lucky he was to have love from a woman like me.
Sometimes the man described above showed himself, but more often than not he was MIA.
Literally missing.
I should of walked away then...but I held on, hoping my best friend would one day resurface.
But instead, after nearly 10 months working through things and being there for him as he rebuildt his life after divorce, he poofed....he vanished.
And before anyone says anything-- I told him I thought he needed to date, be single, spread his wings, and if we were meant to be-- we would see once he got some rebounds out of his system. I didn't want to be a placeholder.
He claimed he would tell me when that day came. And while there were no signs he was seeing anyone, I know him-- and I'm sure he was talking to many women.
I also think he was scared of the potential future we could of had.
Either way, he never communicated to me-- never allowed me to know. Never cared enough to share the hard truths.
He was the loving man I knew, planning to see me and arrange plans for the following week, confessing his love for me....and then he was gone.
Now, one month later-- as I rebuild myself and try to love myself, I wonder if I'll ever go down this road again, and by that I mean-- trust a man's words of love. Allow myself to love another man like I thought I loved him.
Idk, it's still so early.
But I do know I will keep working on the goals and aspirations I lost sight of while he pushed and pulled me away this past year.
I'm proud to say, I've got exciting things in the works-- lifetime bucket goals of overseas trips on the horizon, new job opportunities ahead, more courses I'm taking to further my career, and pAps that are eager to be with me and spend time with me.
I'm cautiously optimistic, but also I'll admit-- very much broken and hurt, too.
No real reason in posting but feels good to write it out, too.
Sending light & love to all those confused tonight as well. ✌

I’ve been out as nonbinary for two years, but since around the time that I came out I’ve wondered if I’m actually trans ftm. It’s something that I am really struggling to figure out, alongside whether I want to pursue medical transition, and part of what’s getting in my way are strong feelings of guilt.
I’m in school studying pure math, which is probably the most male-dominated academic field. I live as a nonbinary person and haven’t medically transitioned, so even though I dress masc, have short hair, try to lower my voice, etc, most people perceive me as a woman (“woman-lite” at best). In almost every class or research setting I’m in, I have been the only “woman”/non-cis-male person in the room. Because of this, I feel horrible about the idea of transitioning: I would literally, single-handedly obliterate the apparent female math population of my school. I also take pride in having overcome a lot of sexism to get where I am, and in increasing female representation in my university’s math department.
I feel like if I fully transitioned and accepted myself as ftm, I would harm mathematics by reducing my school’s visible gender diversity, I would betray the female mathematicians and physicists who have mentored me to this point, and I would throw away all of the work I once put into succeeding despite the rampant sexism in the field. I already feel this way after coming out as nonbinary, and going any further would just make this so much worse :(
At the same time, this is in direct opposition to how I actually feel about myself and my gender identity. There’s this conflict between what I think I should do for the good of others in my field and what I think I should do for myself. I don’t know how to manage it.
Lol anyway, I mostly just wanted to get this off my chest, but I’d appreciate it if ppl have advice about this.
I wish I was just born cis so I didn’t have to deal with this shit x_x

So much to unpack. I'm from a blended family. I'm the odd one out from the failed marriage. Mom met my 'Step' dad when I was 2. He's my dad. I was raised seeing my bio father, call him B, every other weekend until he had a son then it was just sparratic, 'when he had the gas money'. His entire side of the family has multi-generational mental, sexual, and physical abuse to EVERY SINGLE GENERATION. Part of the perpetuation of this abuse was the brainwashing to tell absolutely no one what was happening, and that my mom was the enemy who was taking all B's money in child support to spend on her other kids. Thus the reason why he never had gas money to pick me up. So I kept every little aspect of my life a secret from my mom and dad to the point of actually having a different personality. With mom I was the bad little girl and the B is was the good girl. Because if I was ever bad at B's house I was severely punished, so I trained myself to be absolutely perfect in everyday. His perfect little girl. Mom never knew until I finally snapped out of it fully when I was 26. I told her everything. She was horrified and blames herself. What she doesn't understand is that she gave me unconditional love and safety. I don't blame her. It's not her fault. Here's the problem: because I kept everything from my mom and dad, we would often have arguements and I couldn't control my emotions. I would have fits of absolute rage. We would scream at each other. I didn't know how to express what was happening. I didn't understand. I couldn't tell them. FFW to now. I'm diagnosed with PTSD, bipolar depression, bulimia, generalized anxiety disorder with panic attacks, and physchosis. I have severe anger issues. My sibling is 14 and autistic. My parents have really built their home around making a safe space for them, which is awesome. But I ruin it. Here is what happened yesterday: my 25 yr old brother who lives in the basement rent free with his gf and has no job went out of town w my dad. So the gf asks my mom the take her to work bc she can't drive and pick her up at 1am with my autistic sibling and service dog in towe. Hearing this, as I was there helping mom clean the house like I do every weekend, I offered to take GF to work. I was shot down. Idk why. So I text brother this; It is unacceptable for GF to expect our mother to wake up at and pick her up at 1 am with sibling in towe. She needs to uber or take the day off. Be considerate. He tells me to fuck off. So I call my Dad and very calmly try to explain what's happening. He snort-laughs and hangs up on me. At this point I lost it. I fucked up my brother's car, and about that time mom showed back up from dropping GF off. She asked what was happening. I screamed ask your asshole son, dickhead husband, and the bitch in the basement. And if I see her again I'm going to beat her ass and teach her what respect is. My sibling got upset started screaming and trying to hit me and mom. I screamed at them to stop this had nothing to do with them go to their room. I got angry and drove away only to realize what I'd done and went back. My mother was in tears. My sibling was in a suicidal panic. My dad canceled his father son trip and came home early. All because of me. I ruined everything. I feel like I should just disappear and it's noones fault. It's just what needs to happen to keep everyone safe from me.

Because we've seen what that level of power and greed and conflict does to him.
He's a worse person in every way than he was at the beginning of the series.
The only way he's "better" now is that he's become more like Logan. And Logan was an objectively terrible person who made the world worse by his actions. Who damaged everyone and everything around him.
I hope Ken does not become the American CEO.I hope he does not manage to block the deal.
I hope he finally and forever fails to get the top spot in whatever Waystar Co-GoJo becomes. Failure is his only way out of the poisonous environment his father created, a culture that corrupts and cheapens all who are part of it. Then maybe he can start to become something less toxic and pathetic.
If he loses, he'll have no choice now but to define who he is outside of Logan and the company. Call me optimistic but if he somehow survives losing, and finds a way forward -- then I think he will not die as his father did: lonely, miserable, feared, cruel, and ultimately hollow.

The French economist Thomas Piketty once wrote:

Every human society must justify its inequalities: unless reasons for them are found, the whole political and social edifice stands in danger of collapse. Every epoch therefore develops a range of contradictory discourses and ideologies for the purpose of legitimizing the inequality that already exists or that people be­lieve should exist. From these discourses emerge certain economic, social, and political rules, which people then use to make sense of the ambient social struc­ture. Out of the clash of contradictory discourses—a clash that is at once eco­nomic, social, and political—comes a dominant narrative or narratives, which bolster the existing inequality regime.

Property is the core justification for the poverty, hierarchy, and inequality inherent to capitalism. Why can't an unhoused person sleep in an empty home? The landlord owns it. Why can't a hungry person take food from a store? The store owns it. The opposition takes a cold-not-cruel stance, with Murray Rothbard declaring that:

if a man aggresses against another's person or property to save his own life, he may or may not be acting morally in so doing. [. . .] Regardless of whether his action is moral or immoral, by any criterion, he is still a criminal aggressor against the property of another, and the victim is within his right to repel that aggression by force, and to prosecute the aggressor afterward for his crime

These responses are based on the presumption that property is derived from a just code of ethics. In this post, I challenge this presumption and critically examine the philosophical foundations of the properietary world we live in. I start by defining the natural rights framework of property, then I explain why admixture doesn't work, then I explain the historical implications of admixture, and finally I explain why an individualist approach to property doesn't make sense.

The Admixture Theory, Explanation With Quotes

Contemporary property is mainly justified using the admixture theory. As the argument goes, individuals own themselves, therefore they own their labor, therefore they own whatever they mix their labor with. On the acquisition of property, John Locke, the father of liberalism, wrote:

The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property.

Propertarians (known as "libertarians" in America) make a similar argument, although it supposes the Earth as unowned by default, instead of Locke who supposed the Earth to be the common inheritance of everybody. This nuance is why liberals believe that property should be subject to the well-being of others, and propertarians believe that property should be absolute. In an article describing Rothbard's views, David Gordon wrote:

Once one accepts self-ownership the justification for private property soon follows. Each person owns his own labor. Does he not have a right, then, to what he produces by means of that labor? To deny this is to revert once more to slavery; it is to say that other people have the right to control your labor.

Amixture can therefore be summed up as: "an ethical theory which supposes that labor legitimizes property claims." In particular, I'll be evaluating the argument that (a) individuals have a property right in their own body, (b) therefore individuals have a property right in their own labor, and (c) therefore they have a property right in whatever they mix their labor with.

Mixing Labor

There are two issues with mixing labor: a) labor can't be owned, and b) labor can't be mixed with the material world.
Lysander Spooner describes property as:

a right of absolute dominion over a commodity, whether the owner wish to retain it in his own actual possession and use, or not.

Whoever has just control over an object is its proprietor, and others must respect the authority of the proprietor and only interact with the object or space on the proprietor's terms. This relationship doesn't make sense when applied to concepts beyond the material world.
Labor is not an object. It is not a space that can be occupied. It is an action. It doesn't make sense for an action to have an owner. A surgeon doesn't own the operations they perform. A baseball player doesn't own the swings they hit. A traveler doesn't own the kilometers they walked.
In order for a thing to be owned, the proprietor must be able to exclude others from it. Others must be able to interact with it. Nobody can interact with an action. They can only interact with the thing that performs the action. Therefore, individuals may own themselves, but the actions they perform cannot be owned.
As a corollary, actions cannot be mixed with the material world. Substances can be mixed. Actions aren't substances. In reality, "mixing labor" is simply a metaphor for "doing work." That is, changing the material world.
Property theorists supposed that, by combining something owned with something unowned, the unowned thing becomes owned. Since labor cannot be owned or mixed with the material world, this justification is no longer valid, since the individual never mixed something that is theirs with an unowned object. Therefore just appropriation according to this framework cannot occur.

The Arbitrary Nature Of Admixture

Property is arbitrary. This is not necessarily something we need (or are able to) correct. However, those who claim to have a universal solution to property need to face this fact.
Consider self-ownership. Living things are not static. We constantly ingest, inhale, exhale, and shed. All atoms that make up a person are bound to change. If these atoms that make up a person were once owned, and the owner hasn't consented to relinquishing ownership, then does a maid aggress against the property of somebody when they vacuum hair off a carpet or dust their skin cells from a counter? You might claim that the owner implicitly relinquished ownership. That's fine, but how does that work? By what rules do owners implicitly relinquish their property?
If a mosquito sucks my blood without consent, then sucks the blood of somebody else and in the process transfers some of my blood to them, do I still own that part of my body? Can I ask that person to return my blood to me? Maybe ownership only counts for atoms that I actively use or possess. In that case, why doesn't property beyond my body work the same way?
If I justly own a bucket of water and its contents evaporate and disperse into the atmosphere, do I own the atmosphere? After all, I mixed something owned (water) with something unowned (the atmosphere). Maybe I didn't mix enough of what I own with the atmosphere. In that case, how much of what I own do I need to mix with something that is unowned for me to appropriate it?
Let's examine land. If I plow a field, how much do I actually own? Do I own the atoms that my plow touches? How far down is the soil mine? Can somebody homestead just a few centimeters away from my farm in an area that I haven't touched?
With some thought, a believer in admixture could answer these questions. But would those answers be objective? If even one question here doesn't have an objective answer, then admixture itself is arbitrary, and that's okay. However, this means that any ethical framework built on admixture can't assert itself as the one truly ethical way to govern society throughout all space and time.

Admixture Is An Appeal To Desert

Admixture is an appeal to desert. It's justified through an emotional appeal that someone deserves their property (which is not necessarily bad, just arbitrary). Usually propertarians take an example that everybody can agree on, like an artist owning a sculpture they create. Murray Rothbard wrote:

put baldly, there are very few who would not concede the monstrous injustice of confiscating the sculptor's property

This very personal version of property that barely effects other people is then used as a foundation to justify other property that have led to conquest, consolidation, and tyranny.
Some anti-propertarians might say that the artist is justified in keeping the sculpture not because they mixed their labor with it, but because they're using it personally and not harming anyone else.

The Historical Implications Admixture

Frederick Engels wrote:

Every change in the social order, every revolution in property relations, is the necessary consequence of the creation of new forces of production which no longer fit into the old property relations.
Private property has not always existed.
When, towards the end of the Middle Ages, there arose a new mode of production which could not be carried on under the then existing feudal and guild forms of property, this manufacture, which had outgrown the old property relations, created a new property form, private property. And for manufacture and the earliest stage of development of big industry, private property was the only possible property form; the social order based on it was the only possible social order.

The admixture theory fails to understand property within the context of history as a relation that changes with the development of society, instead asserting itself as a universal moral truth to be applied throughout all of time. The admixture theory has not been a universal truth, or a truth at all for that matter, until the rise of liberalism during the enlightenment. Feudal property, the divine right of kings, slavery, and corporate systems of property all existed before (and even coexisted with) liberalism.
Not to mention war, conquest, and in particular, theft of the commons, where farmland was forcefully seized from peasants and placed into the hands of the property owning class where it was subsequently passed on from generation to generation, setting the precedent of concentrated power for centuries to come. This process was called "primitive accumulation," and it's the reason why Karl Marx criticized property as "idyllic" when in the first volume when he wrote:

as soon as the question of property crops up, it becomes a sacred duty to proclaim the intellectual food of the infant as the one thing fit for all ages and for all stages of development. In actual history it is notorious that conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, briefly force, play the great part. In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial. Right and “labour” were from all time the sole means of enrichment, the present year of course always excepted. As a matter of fact, the methods of primitive accumulation are anything but idyllic.

The amixture theory is literally incapable of processing and correcting theft on such a massive scale that has occurred since time immemorial. How do you correct ancient robbery such as that of the commons? To ignore the claims of ancient people is to ignore the self-ownership of millions, yet there's no clean way to correct the mess of illegitimate property we now find ourselves in. During my research, I did find an answer to this question. Murray Rothbard wrote:

In this case of what we might call "feudalism" or "land monopoly," the feudal or monopolist landlords have no legitimate claim to the property. The current "tenants," or peasants, should be the absolute owners of their property, and, as in the case of slavery, the land titles should be transferred to the peasants, without compensation to the monopoly landlords.

There are two issues with this solution. Firstly, any chance for a legitimate voluntary trade (or any record of such a trade) while the land was illegitimately occupied has been long lost to history. We have no record or way of knowing who the legitimate proprietor of any land is that has been seized in the past during primitive accumulation. Secondly, the theft extends beyond just the land. If wealth was generated based on an illegitimate property claim, it then follows that the wealth is illegitimate too, therefore it must be returned to the people who it was stolen from, who are long dead with countless unknown decedents.
In reality, fixing the mess of illegitimate property we have on our hands will never happen, for both a lack of records and a lack of practicality. The answer to all of this is simple: abandon a conception of property based on divine metaphysical connections to the owner, and instead view property as a relation that changes with the development of society.

The Material World Is Inescapably Collectivist

An individualist approach to property doesn't account for the fact that the universe is used collectively. What one individual does with their property can effect the life and liberty of another. Murray Rothbard tried to address this in the Libertarian Manifesto, but it ended up blowing the whole idea of property out of the water:

in the case of air pollution we are dealing not so much with private property in the air as with protecting private property in one’s lungs, fields, and orchards. The vital fact about air pollution is that the polluter sends unwanted and unbidden pollutants—from smoke to nuclear radiation to sulfur oxides—through the air and into the lungs of innocent victims, as well as onto their material property. All such emanations which injure person or property constitute aggression against the private property of the victims. Air pollution, after all, is just as much aggression as committing arson against another’s property or injuring him physically

Rothbard did not expand on the implications of this afterward, because if he did, the idea of property would unravel. This implies that actions that harm others are illegitimate uses of property. This includes methane from cattle, carbon dioxide from power plants, tire particles from cars, lithium from batteries, over-fishing, over-hunting, excessive noise, and the list goes on. All these have been demonstrated to harm people beyond the property, in some cases even around the globe.
This pales in comparison to the biggest effect of acquiring property; that it takes others' liberty. Before private acquisition, others' were free to walk upon and enjoy the land, after acquisition, they're not. Robert Nozick wrote:

It will be implausible to view improving an object as giving full ownership to it, if the stock of unowned objects that might be improved is limited. For an object’s coming under one person’s ownership changes the situation of all others. Whereas previous they were at liberty (in Hohfeld’s sense) to use the object, they now no longer are.

This doesn't mean that restricting public access is bad in all cases. All this demonstrates the need for a more democratic model of property; because the effects of property are collectivist, whether we like that or not.

Conclusion

The point of this post isn't that property is bad or that all property should belong to a collectivist hivemind. It's that the natural rights approach is just a story that we tell ourselves. When we consider the actual nature of matter history and matter, we realize that mixing labor doesn't actually exist.
Whatever form of property should replace admixture is beyond the scope of this post. But we need to understand that property has always been a relationship that changes with the development of society. Claiming that there's only one true way that property can exist is nonsense.

Suffering comes from the mistaken belief that things ought to be other than they are rn
Suffering is resistance
Suffering is also the result of the mistaken belief that there is a "you" to be making decisions
"But I am in this Horrible situation!!"
It was meant to be, resisting it only amplifies the pain and causes suffering
Everything is Perfect, that is peace and truth
Everything is exactly where it should be, there is no accident
Everything happens the way it needs to happen
...
There is no seperate doer
all apparent actions in the world are actions of the Universe/Source working through all beings
Thus every single action is divine and perfect
...
No need to regret anything, everything takes care of itself, life is cyclic, good times and bad times dance with each other
All previous actions and decisions wont make sense until after the puzzle of your life has been laid out, thats why only Faith and trust work in times of uncertainty
...
So How do you move into the One Way?
You don't, you are already in it
Just be who you are, be Natural, thats Perfection

Not gonna add a lot of context about my dad...you all know the deal lol
I (21M) left my parents house exactly two weeks ago. My dad has called or texted me every single day. Not necessarily harassing me or anything, but just telling me he wants to see me again, to stay over for one night at his house, blah blah blah. I already went back once and I hated every second of it. Im paying my own rent because I wanted SPACE, not to continously go back to that shithole every few days.
I literally have plans to change cities in like 3 months lol. What's gonna happen then? I feel super guilty already, he tells me he misses me a lot. He's older (in his 60s) and i sometimes worry that it could affect his health, being sad all the time. But it's not like hes lonely, he lives with my brother (whose almost 30), and he has a shit ton of friends. I cant deal with him constantly nagging me. Can i get some advice on this?
Like i said im not gonna give a lot of context behind this, just know he's an awful person, physically and verbally abusive. I literally know people who have good relationships with their (great) parents, who left to be on their own just because they wanted to be independent, and even THEY dont visit their parents as much as he wants me to visit him.
He doesn't get boundaries. I'd have so much respect for him if he stfu for just a month. You had 21 years with me and it was hell for the most part. Ive been gone two weeks and you wont allow me to have some space. Idgaf if he misses me or anything...don't care. Like i said, i was around for 21 years, i need a break. Why is it always his wants and needs over everyone else's?

Start of Alex Series Start of Teacher Series: Lesson 1 Previous: Meet the Parents: Fated Victory Party Next Royal Road / Class Picture Alex and Freki Artwork /Sub: Random3X (lore and more) Discord
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July 20th, year 024 Angels Descent
The class, with two of their teachers, were en route to the Ironwoodlands. They had been on the road for a few days as the Ironwoods themselves were at the far west of Greed’s domain, and the gate was more central to the region.
“So, you kids ever been to the Ironwoods?” All but Tasha and Alex shook their heads to indicate no.
“I’ve apparently only been once when I met Elissa’s father… at least that’s what my journal said… memory is still hazy for me… Yuu, you’ve been here a few times, right?”
“Yeah, when master got tired of me making machines that destroyed buildings, he threw me to the elves to ‘play’, as he called it.”
“Any advice? Elissa hasn’t really talked about her home much, so I’m kind of in the dark myself.” The class focused their attention on Yuu, who held her hands to her hips and puffed her chest with pride.
“Of course, young one, I shall educate you as you do your students. After all, I am an expert in interacting with Ironwood Elves!!”
“Yuu… you are like a few hours older than me; I wouldn’t call me young?”
“Silence, young one!”
“So what should we do then? Are there any rules like for courting an Ironwood elf?” Maxwell asked, glancing at Tasha.
“Well, first off, ignore Tasha,” Yuu said bluntly. “Second, a big thing to remember is there are three clans of Ironwood elves. First are the worker folk; they do the everyday stuff. The second is the warrior clans; they are self-explanatory. Finally, there are the outside clans.”
“Outside clans?” Bea repeated.
“Oh, I’m part of that!!!” Tasha said, beaming a smile at everyone.
“They are clans not taught the normal ways of Ironwood elves. This is so they can actually interact with the outside world and not cause a diplomatic incident.”
“Uh… what do you mean?” Daisy asked, only to follow Yuu’s gaze towards Alex.
“Oh yeah… Elissa is part of the Warrior Clan, and the first time I met her, she gave me a friendly little bump to the chest.”
“That sounds cute,” Daisy muttered, thinking of all the times she had seen the pair be so lovey-dovey.
“Cute bit was when he flew through three walls and shattered his spine.”
“WHAT?!!!”
“Yeah, the warrior clan greet people they consider as friends with a full-force punch. It’s why their warriors are weirdly durable and able to endure considerable pain,” Yuu explained, glancing at Tasha, who had learnt such a skill from Elissa herself.
“So first rule, you see any elf with a weapon, flip them off, stick out your tongue and be as rude as possible. The second they think you are a friend, you will suffer for it.”
“My brother has been brought here?” Daisy muttered, feeling a pang of panic about her brother receiving such treatment.
“Oh, don’t worry; Elissa will keep them safe.”
“So, will they treat the Big Chief like a friend?”
“Oh yeah, certainly… this one, however,” Yuu said, gesturing to Alex.
“I’m technically rather hated by the Ironwood elves.”
“Why? Aren’t you marrying their princess?” Daisy asked, shocked.
“Well, need I remind you her brother took an arena full of noble children with high-ranking lords hostage to rescue her? They adore Elissa. I’m just the human bastard who stole her away.”
“To be honest, sir, from what Miss Yuu has told us, why don’t they just kill you?”
“Blunt question Maxwell but a thing to remember Elves live for a very long time. They see me more as a short fling that’ll last a few decades, maybe a century or two. After which, I’ll die, and she’ll move back.”
“And you’re ok with this?”
“Maxwell… a thing you’ll learn when you find the one… you will never care what the world thinks so long as you can be with her,” Alex replied as he looked out the window wistfully.
“We’re almost at the first town,” the carriage driver announced. “I ain’t gonna take you any further.”
“Good, we can get some rest in a real bed,” Kline grumbled.
Stepping out of the carriage, the class came face to face with their first experience of an elf settlement. They had originally had the image of what had always been written about elven homes. Buildings entwined with trees. Great structures as if moulding nature itself.
The image before them was an entirely metallic set-up. Every building was coated in metal plates and had countless spikes. Worse still was the severed monster heads resting on each building's roof.
“Big Chief?”
“You won’t get much rest outside the Ironwoods capital. This region is infested with monsters that attack every night.”
“Why would they settle in a region with monsters?!!!” Kline cried out.
“The majority of their population are warriors. Where else can they get a good fight?” Yuu replied.
“So Miss Elissa had to fight every night since she was a child?” Daisy asked once again, feeling worry begin to bubble up.
“You didn’t?” Tasha asked, looking perplexed. “Everyone around here, regardless of clans, learns how to fight monsters from when we first can walk. Only the warrior clan focuses on it and gets all the fun.”
The class decidedly ignored Tasha’s comment and chose a fortress-looking inn for where they would rest for the evening. Though they weren’t certain how much rest they’d get, especially after seeing the monster head hanging near the entrance. The innkeeper welcomed them with open fists, only to be rebuffed as they had been instructed to do.
“Fine, here’s your keys, you ungrateful pieces of crap!”
Throwing the key at the class, they only barely dodged as they lodged themselves into the wall behind them. A wall they couldn’t help but notice had numerous holes from past throws of the keys.
“Me and Yuu are gonna settle in at the tavern and have a few. You can get some rest,” Alex said as he sat at a table, ignoring the baleful glares pointed in his direction.
“Come get us if you need help,” Yuu added as she ignored an elf actively punching her in the face.
The class settled into a large room with bunkbeds enough for the whole class and their teachers. As they rested, trying to clear away the fatigue of a long journey, the hours began to pass.
“So Tasha… what are your parents like?” Maxwell asked, looking up from his spot on a bottom bunk.
“They are rather boring. Daddy works as a clerk in Hades seat. Mum works as a monster cleaner.”
“Monster cleaner?” Daisy repeated.
“Yeah, the dead bodies of monsters we slay we display on our buildings to show how strong a monster we beat. Well, after a while, they go icky and need cleaning. Mum handles that.”
“So, the really big monster head we saw near the entrance?”
“Yeah, means the guys here must be really strong.”
“I’m starting to wonder what I should fear more, the monsters or the elves,” Bea muttered as she snuggled on Gunter’s chest.
“Not sure what you mean… but I’m sure my family will love Stampy,” Tasha proudly took the small creature out of her travel bag, where it proceeded to munch on a piece of plant she offered it.
“Kwooooon!!!”
“I’m more wondering what they’ll think of me,” Maxwell muttered to himself.
“What was that?”
“Nothing!”
“Sparky… come on, boy, I got some snakkums for you,” Daisy said as she held out a piece of travel jerky for her duck-sized dragon. The small creature poked its head out of her travel pack and snatched the dried meat before retreating.
“He’s been rather scared lately,” Daisy muttered.
“Probably the field of danger here,” Tasha replied as she scratched Stampy’s long neck.
“Danger field?” Kline echoed, looking nervous.
“Can’t you feel it?” Tasha asked, looking confused. “Try to feel the aura.”
Relaxing, the class focused their senses, and that was when the pressure began to rise. They had been able to ignore it so far as it had become more like background noise. It was nowhere near as bad as when their instructors pressured them directly. But it was enough to cause minor discomfort.
“What is that, Tasha?” Bea asked.
“That is, um… it's all the monsters' aura getting spread across the woods.”
“So what we are feeling is…” Kline began before trailing off with a look of horror.
In one of their lectures with Alex, he had taught them you can increase the density of aura in an area by focusing and compacting it, but the problem with that is it reduced the range. Another option was you could increase the number of people releasing aura. Experiencing this pressure from a vague distance meant the numbers must be considerable or very strong. Likely both from what had been described.
“Why in the hell would people live here?!!!”
“Well, the trees were the original reason,” Tasha replied, oblivious to how nervous Kline was starting to become.
“The trees are really big, and iron whatsits grow through them. That’s why they call them ironwood trees. Also, my ancestors liked fighting and making friends, so here they could do both.”
As the class began to ponder who unhinged and crazy Tasha’s people must actually be, the entire inn violently shook. Jumping from their beds, the class immediately went into action mode and rushed down the stairs to find several of the inn’s staff rushing out the front door with weapons.
Looking around, they found their teachers relaxing with drinks, still having a friendly conversation as if they were oblivious to the dangers outside. Running towards the pair, they stood at the ready.
“Oh hey kids, me and Yuu were about to grab a deck of cards. Want to join in a game or two?”
“Sir, the inn is under attack!” Daisy shouted indignantly.
“And?” Alex replied, tilting his head.
“We should help!” Maxwell answered as if stating the obvious.
“Why?” Yuu answered this time. Both teachers looked confused. Ignoring the cries for help and pained screams coming from outside.
“Because, sir, you have the power to help!!!” Daisy shouted.
“And that makes me beholden to them? Daisy, I gained this power to ensure my freedom to do what I wanted. It may seem callous, but just because I have the power to help does not mean I or anyone else are under any obligation to help.”
“Big Chief, please help!!” Gunter pleaded.
“Sorry, but the dork is right. We may have the strength to help resolve many situations, but people do not grow if someone else solves every little thing.”
“Kids… this is a lesson you will need to learn someday… You can’t help everyone, and in reality, you shouldn’t. You will either run yourself ragged or become someone else’s tool. Gain power to ensure freedom. If you kids want to help, you can go and help. But me and Yuu here will be starting a professional game of snap.”
“Fine, we will go out and help them!” Bea shouted indignantly as the class stormed out of the tavern and out into the town.
The sight that greeted them was one of abject chaos. There were already a few collapsed buildings, and they could see people running around in a panic. Down the road from their inn, they could even see the remains of one of the attacking monsters.
It was a giant beast about the size of a two-storey tall building. It was covered in boney plates that, even from how far away they were standing, looked needlessly thick. While its tail looked like a massive boney club, the kind used by giants.
“Earthen Drakes… Armoursauses, if I had to guess,” Maxwell said, looking at the remains.
“What can we do then?” Bea asked as she channelled her energy into bringing out her possession summon.
“We can spread out in teams of two. One enhancer and one projection and focus on the small fry,” Kline suggested as he fired an accurate shot that took the head off a small turkey-sized lizard monster.
“Ok, Kline and Tasha, you go that way. Gunter and Bea, you go to the south. Maxwell, you and me will head east,” Daisy declared. Maxwell hesitated for a moment looking at Tasha before nodding. With their plans decided, the class split up to face the attack.

TL;DR at the bottom
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Story time I thought ya'll might get a laugh out of. Also, any advice on what to keep an eye out for or suggestions on attempting to maintain my monstrosity are welcome.
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So, I bought a house back in last December. Has an inground pool on the property that is 20x50. Now I was always poor growing up never had a pool nor friends that did so mind you I have not a clue about a single thing about them at this point. Now it looked like the liner of this pool had seen better days but serviceable for a year or three until I could deal with that. Now I'm sure some of you are already cringing but don't worry it gets worse.
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Winter had come to an end started getting warmer, so I decided to start looking into this thing, with some heavy "encouragement" from my young kid. So, knowing absolutely nothing I decide to wait and enlist a local professional to evaluate the situation. The pool guy shows up to take a look and quote me, I go out with him and help remove its winter cover, and thus the horror story begins.
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The pool was virtually empty aside from two to three feet in the deep end. Now I bet you'd think it was a leak and I'm being dramatic, oh no no dear reader, for some ungodly reason the previous owner just...drained it (this has since been tested and irrefutable). Didn't say a word about it. It had water in it at one point while I was looking at the home. Should I have kept an eye on it and known sooner? Probably. Was I naive and was like welp just don't touch it until spring? Yeap. Well, you guessed it from and older already kind of rough liner, the bloody thing shrank. This caused a lot of areas being pulled out from the coping and a pretty rough tear at the far skimmer. I am about to find out how expensive pools are.
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So, the pool guy took a look and assessed the damage. Obviously, I am going to need a new liner and to add to the fun he determined the coping was pretty much shot and would also need to be replaced. He said without digging into it he would estimate it was going to cost me 10k to 13k. Spoiler alert not going to happen this year not even close I am far from wealthy, and this was simply not an option. So, I asked him if there is anything at all we could at least try so my daughter would not be absolutely devasted her summer swimming dream was gone. He gives me instructions and shows me how to pull the liner and use liner lock to hold it in place and then advises me to fill the pool until it's about 18inches away from the lowest spot that will need help and we will see if it'll be remotely possible.
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Some areas worked out. Others, others did not. I wouldn't be writing this right now if it had gone well. Now many other minor areas aside there were three major areas that would obviously need something done about. The liner had shrunk too much. No matter how much I tried every time I got a good amount of water in about a 10-to-12-foot length of liner would pull out of the coping even with the liner lock and would sag down to about 16-to-18 inches at its lowest point. The corner where the ladder would go in the shallow end had the same sort of issue but worse. The corners aren't 90 degrees it is a diagonal slant from wall to wall. This spot ended up being about 8-foot total starting on one wall going across the diagonal to the other wall, about 22 inches at its lowest point. Then to top it off, that tear at the skimmer got worse, but was by far the easiest problem to solve.
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As you would expect, and as I feared he came and looked and gave me the news, there is no saving it. Cover it back up until I could afford to have to have it redone. However, growing up how I did I am quite resourceful and find ways to make things work through some creative engineering. So, with the professional taping out, limited on resources I thought to myself, why not try? What's the worst the happens? The same outcome I already have. It's already FUBAR, it isn't like I can make it worse since my current option is just cover it. And who knows maybe it works and I am my kid's hero.
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After some time doing research (if you could call it then more like plotting like a man who has lost their damn mind), a buddy of mine in tow, and plenty of beer, the plan was put into action. We secured the sagging liner to the pool wall the best we could with some sort of waterproof epoxy type thing that could be removed so wouldn't cause any new permanent damage. I had gotten my hands on some new pool liner vinyl that was large enough to cover all the areas we need. Cut out pieces to size and shape, used vinyl cement initially to secure the piece to the original liner all the way up to the coping. Once secured ran another bit of the vinyl cement along the seam, honestly this idea occurred as a why not, shouldn't hurt? Then just for good measure went over the seam once again with a healthy dose of flex paste. After that we secured the new liner pieces into the coping with liner lock. Also, we decided to leave slack in these pieces with the thought of if there is more stretching instead of tearing or pulling it out maybe the slack would allow it to not end badly. This process was repeated over all 3 of the major danger zones. Now there are some jacked up small spots here and there as well but honestly, I could not care less about them until we discovered if Frankenpool had any hope.
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We filled the pool to about 2 inches below the lowest giant red flag to simulate as much water weight as I could to see if the situation would worsen and if we had any hope. Three weeks on monitoring and taking measurements there was no change, a glimmer of hope. As of this weekend we filled the quilt, I mean pool to its intended water line. As we watched...and waited.....and monitored....no changes in the liner worsening......no water loss. I'm not going to lie I'm not sure about my partner in unspeakable crimes against pools, but I was absolutely shocked. I was expecting some sort of catastrophic failure at our unspeakable "repairs".
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Now I am not stupid, I know this isn't going to last. In fact, it probably has no right to have made it this far. If it makes it the year even if it ends up requiring more minor Frankenstein treatment, I will be speechless. But hope remains....and is only growing stronger. Pump and filter are fully functioning. And beginning the cleaning process.
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If you made it this far feel free to call me as dumb as an idea as I had in attempting this. But also, any advice on how to keep this thing going or what potential problems to watch for although it begs to be put out of its misery, please let me know! Or any questions in what exactly we had done or just questioning my sanity.
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TL;DR
Don't know the first thing about pools. Previous owner set me up for worse failure. Went evil scientist to "fix" the unfixable because why not? Now I have Frakenpool that looks like it's from Fallout. But currently it is working so far.

I just want to add trigger warnings: abuse, sleeping pill use, possible reactive abuse?, self harm/suicide ideation
Hello everyone! I am just really struggling with determining if I was the narcissist in a previous relationship that’s weighing heavy on me. I would like to state that before this relationship, I was in an all over abusive relationship (That was actually my 1st serious relationship, happened in high school) that was very traumatic. Within and after that relationship, that ex was telling me that no one would love me or love me like he does, would physically hurt me as he would tell me that ‘he is not hurting me, I am hurting myself’, blame me for everything in the relationship, his mom would make excuses for him even as she heard him hurting me.. It was a LOT. And I guess that was also why I was so susceptible to my next relationship which is the one I am inquiring about.
So, that relationship lasted 3 years.. I went to therapy.. A year and maybe a half later, I met another guy (which is the one I am more confused on and questioning myself the most..) My 1st bf was known as not a good guy so it was easier for me to come to terms with that it was not me? But this one… Everyone LOVES him… We met through a friend of mine at a theme park.. I guess for a good month he was trying to get my number from her (she was a good friend of mine at the time, she was dating one of his good friends, they knew each other. She took us to where he was). I got a text from him saying “Hey beautiful, can you guess who this is?” and it all started from there..
He had previously gotten out of a 4 year relationship, 2 months before we met (Stupid me; HOWEVER, i did not know how short of a time span it truly was until I went through his phone and laptop), but he made it seem like she was just cheating on him and not doing right by him majorly, he was over it, and it was done. I didn’t know his part until the 4th year when I went through his laptop and saw that he would call her names, he would be trying to be sexual with her friend which is the same girl who told him that he couldn’t cheat on me with anyone besides her and he agreed (Same girl that would be mentioned in a bit), and so on.
We ended up going to the same college, and hanging out a lot; However, even from month one he was trying to get with me and saying that he “had” to be with me because I was sweet, beautiful, xyz but he didn’t have time for that at the moment due to him just getting out of the relationship (which I was ok with tbh. But when mentioning that I don’t think I wanted to date he would be like why?… (As well as I think this is what got me too because he was not prioritizing a relationship so it did not seem like he would be using me). He would call me while he was at work a lot, and he even showed up to my house once randomly because I was trying to avoid hanging out with him and me and my friend had to lie and say I wasn’t there. He would explain a lot of how we would make sense together in a sense and why I should not be opposed to dating him..
Within the 4th month, he confessed that he loved me and hoped that I felt the same… In my gut I felt that it did not feel right… But everyone was saying that he liked me, everyone loved him, and he seemed like a good guy and totally opposite of my 1st ex… So I thought, maybe this is love and maybe I do love him… One night I stupidly explained what I been through before meeting him (my previous relationship and friendships) and how I just did not want to go through that again… He said he would never put me through anything like that, will treat me how I deserve like the princess I am, and how laid back he was (but I did not think laid back would mean flirting with other women in front of me or in general, etc which he would mention at a later time when bringing things up to him “Well I told you I was laid back”).. By this time I was lowkey babe, his princess, etc… His friends telling me that he really liked me, and I made him happy… That he talked about me a lot.. I thought maybe this was it…
Around month 8, he asked me out… Immediately a shift began… Right after he asked me out he stated “You’re lucky because there was someone else I was supposed to date”… I instantly knew that something was wrong… But at the same time… A thought that ran through my head was my 1st ex telling me how no one would ever love me like him and other things… and tbh I think I just went with it and accepted fate Ig. I got in his car and we drove off… But now that I even look back, he would question me sexually compared to other women.. call himself the “booty king”.. and talk about how he was sad that he lost his old phone containing photos of all the girls’ pics he had while we were talking… so.. Yeah… Ig that wasn’t even the 1st shift.. I guess I was just used to that type of treatment now that I think about it..
To add more information before getting to the main portion, before so much occurred, I did not mind him hanging out even alone with girls.. He made me feel safe and I trusted him and even told him that. To the point where he told me that he was going to Disney with the girl mentioned above and that she liked him, but I need to not worry because he wasn’t going to do anything and liked me and other stuff. This was after he told me he thinks we shouldn’t be talking to other people (so this occurred a little before he asked me out). However, during this time, if he saw me with a guy he seemed to get jealous. For example, I was saving the table, and the janitor who looked like a guy my age came over, we nodded, and he just kept working. He came back as the janitor moved and asked me if he was flirting with me and thought that I was lying about him not flirting with me. Another time, I went to the movie theatre with my friend and he brought it up a few times and was asking about it and claiming it was a date. However, he would keep stating that he was not the jealous type and his friends would too..
But anyways after we started dating, he immediately started ignoring me as I was talking and would always be on his phone. One such event was when we were headed somewhere with his friends… Once they got out of the car, and I began talking to him, he immediately got on his phone and was kind of ignoring me but giving ‘mhms’, ‘ohs’, and other sounds like that.. Eventually I went quiet.. When his girl friend 1st got back into the car, he immediately put his phone down and started conversating with her… I was hurt.. which led to him doing some actions and admitting that he did them because I was sad and wouldn’t tell him why and shrugged. He would be on his phone looking at girls.. Even when my parents were going through a divorce, and I was venting to him over skype.. He was just ignoring me.. and I could see through his glasses that he was just browsing on tumblr which already made me more sad and alone, then I saw him staring at and sharing a picture of a girl showing her butt, and I got upset and he got upset with me for being upset.. On our one year anniversary even, I was talking to him, and he was ignoring me.. But I caught him looking at a picture with girls showing their butts and just became quiet and upset.. He’d already called me insecure and such by that point..
Another incident which I’m sure sounds stupid and may just be really stupid.. Was 2 months after we dated.. I told him all that I wanted for my birthday was to take him to HHN for his first time.. He said he didn’t have any plans to go with anyone else and pinky promised me.. I would say maybe a couple of weeks later he told me he was going with one of his girl friends that worked there on that night, and I immediately called him.. He invited me to go, but I couldn’t because I was busy, and I asked if he could wait, and he brought up that he couldn’t just say no because he already told her yes. I brought up the pinky promises, and stupidly begged him if he could just wait.. He said he couldn’t and he had to go.. Later he posted on snapchat about how much fun he was having and how cool and crazy it was.. Later told me he just went with her because she could get him in for free.. which I would have paid if needed, but I didn’t know.. He would manipulate me into letting him do whatever because his ex did (For example, going to stay on the beach with his girl best friend, her mom, and her sister, but by this point he already kind of made it clear that he did not care about me, so I was uncomfortable with it, but he kept pushing until I said yes and would guilt trip me for being unsure).
During this 1st year, he already called me a whore for having guy friends, crazy, insecure because of above things etc. One incident we went to the club with one of his guy friends, I didn’t know the plan was to find girls for him (his guy friend) to get.. So while I was trying to dance and interact with them, I noticed he was just looking around and pointing out girls and kind of didn’t acknowledge me a lot of the night.. Which did make me sad.. I became standoffish, and that led to an argument and him hitting the steering wheel yelling at me and asking what the fuck is my problem with girls.. Which I remained silent after trying to explain.. Another incident is when at some point in the first couple of months I told him I would have sex with him.. We ended up at a resort because I have timeshares.. However, I got extremely sick to the point I couldn’t breathe and was worried. I did say I would have to pass on sex at the moment because I really could not breathe and didn’t feel well. He was more upset that I didn’t give him sex and said how I lied.. Which I really didn’t mean to.. and I did feel really bad about.
He would say how he didn’t care about how I felt about something, would go do that said thing, and then would come back and apologize after talking to one of his girl friends about it, and how she made him realize it wasn’t cool. He would be really mean and say mean things.. he would start denying his actions and words so I started keeping screenshots to make sure that what I had remembered was accurate.. Adults would tell me that I better take good care of him while this was happening and he would look at me and smile and do like a jerking movement with his head like "yeah you better" if that makes sense..
I noticed after a while, I couldn’t control my emotions… I started becoming more and more emotionally reactive. I became increasingly jealous and trying everything to get him to care.. I also begin to try to find ways to get him to understand how he was hurting me and kept thinking of ways to get him to stop.. When I would react he told me that he showed his friends or told them what I did and their reactions and comments.. He told them I was crazy.. After a while I asked him to stop talking about our relationship to his friends because I noticed he wouldn’t tell them why I was reacting the way I was which also leads me to question if it was me.. I began trying to try to control situations so I wouldn’t get any more hurt. I started becoming passive aggressive and started saying mean things.. I threw my toothbrush at the bathroom door once.. I started taking sleeping pills because I got anxiety when he would text me that he was going out. I started taking the pills as well because I couldn’t heal and move on from the things that had happened as fast as he would’ve liked.. I would try to leave but he would say what I wanted to hear of course.. But if I tried to talk to him about the things, he would hardly say anything or just be like “you’re right, I’m trash”, change the subject, or tell me he would break up with me if I brought it up again.. Eventually he would tell me how I needed help and kiss me on the forehead.. At one point, I asked him if we break up, would he consider trying to work on things in the future after we both do growing, and he responded by shaking his head and telling me only if I had changed… I always made him not want to do things or not want to go to things.. He was more cool than me and had more friends than me he would say or imply at times and even brought it up because I got more likes on my insta posts.. One day I would be wifey and he would be so in love with me and not want any other girls.. and the next day I should understand if he wanted to breakup so he can go be with other girls.. His family said in front of me that he could just go get another girlfriend.. and he would shrug his shoulders and repeat that to me..
Major heartbreak events would happen after I helped him in someway, and he would feel a type of way that I wouldn’t want to help him or do things.. Like I helped get him jobs, get back in school, be on time for work, took care of him when he almost died (which led to a major event I will talk about in a few) he would tell me or show me that he didn’t care about me and I couldn’t count on him to be there for me either.. Like when I tried to tell him that I am becoming more severely depressed due to stuff, he was just like “I care less and less” because I brought up depression due to different things.. Which I know.. Stupid for staying.. However.. He would be “hurt” that I didn’t believe that he loved and cared for me.. That the trust I had was diminishing.. He would ask me why I thought he was lying to me and tell me that there were and are no other girls.. Everything led up to the 4th year..
After being with him in the hospital after he could’ve died.. I was with him and making sure he was ok afterwards.. Something was going to happen with a girl I didn’t feel comfortable with him being alone with and he told me.. surprise.. that he didn’t care and had to go.. Told me she said I was pretty.. I asked him if I could go through his phone a couple of days later, I guess I just needed that final push.. I found so much, from him talking to other women about our relationship but being more concerned about how we were having less and less sex, him cheating and flirting, him texting his friend about how he thought him and his ex were getting back together, etc. And I just lost it.. I woke him up shaking him asking why me.. just why… and before I knew it I slapped him.. It was like slow motion, I tried to stop myself but I couldn’t.. I immediately felt guilt.. and that was the first time I ever hit someone.. I know it’s not ok.. but that started an altercation and he dug his nails into me and so on.. I went to the bathroom bleeding.. and the next day.. He asked what happened to me and the marks.. I told him I just had a depressive episode.. and he told me that I shouldn’t hurt myself like that.. Like he didn’t remember anything.. It was like me and him switched places.. He began being afraid to communicate with me.. and to this day.. It’s been almost 3 years.. I feel extremely guilty and re-enact that night but begging myself to stop.. to just leave.. I still feel angry at myself.. His close friends were like “he really tried.. he really loved you.. ah I don’t think he’s like that”.. and sometimes it makes me doubt my experience..
At the end of the relationship is something I can’t forget.. He smirked and told me that he knew he’d be ok.. and that he already moved on and accepted everything.. and that has been something hard on me too.. I removed him from a lot but stupidly texted him a month or so later apologizing..
After the relationship when I would hear or see him or his name, I would have little panic attacks.. everything would go blurry and it felt like I couldn’t breathe.. Therapy isn’t helping.. I feel like I can’t move on and sometimes I idealize or day dream about suicide heavily..
I keep trying to stop myself from looking at his postings about loyalty.. being faithful.. giving everything to the girl who is always down for him.. not lying.. how his friends post how amazing he is and his quotes about cheating and such.. but it’s like a bad addiction I just can’t seem to break.. I keep asking myself was it me.. and if I’m just the narcissist.. He did take the blame and apologize near the end of the relationship and then once I reached out and apologized for my actions after the relationship.. But I still am so confused..
I feel consumed by rage.. envy.. Jealousy.. I see him being blessed with everything and thanking God and Jesus which diminished my faith.. If it wasn’t me, then how come he is getting so many blessings and get to be so happy.. I keep saying how it’s not fair.. I feel guilt.. I feel shame.. I don’t trust myself.. I can’t tell who I truly am after lashing out.. I feel like I want to give up.. Like it’s never going to end.. I keep seeing things about narcissistic abuse, and then I get scared because what if it was me….. Then I feel guilty for not wanting to watch any more things on narcissism or abuse for a while.. I keep praying, begging for it all to go away.. I have resorted to tarot and spells.. Faking it til I make it.. Nothing.. and then I get frustrated.. I keep reliving and trying to play things out differently if that makes sense.. I feel so alone, and I self-isolate so much.. It’s almost 3 years.. I am just confused.. and I am sorry for this being so long and possibly confusing and all over the place..