I live in Philadelphia in the United States right now and have an M.S. in physics with mostly laboratort experience. Unfortunately my career path has been pretty rocky and I end up in a lot of temporary work or support roles. I currently live in Philly but work in South Jersey but I'm having trouble both with driving and having a cars destroy all of my gains. the commute it horrible and I only make $19/hr right now. I get into a lot of major and minor car accidents and cry or have a pannick attack at least one a week on the way home. I've always been a very innattentive driver from a combination of ADHD and maybe vision problems. I've made up to $30/hr before in laboratory job (in the suburbs) before but I got a new car and then got fired and the new car took all my savings. All the jobs with similar skill sets tends to be like an hour away in some far away place I don't want to live in.
Anyway I don't know whether to go back to school for something or maybe just change my job search plan. I have the skills for basic office work but can't seem to find any. I don't know any programming languages and have only played with Matlab in college. Im not really great with computers. I'm not really set on this city but I noticed wherever I live the jobs I find are in some cooperate campus in the middle of nowhere. I have to search hard to find a commutable apartment in a city. They often don't end up working out anyway and I end up having to take something where I drive further:( . I know if be happier if I could just remove the car from the equation but I feel stuck right now.
Anyone have any advice about finding a career path that's car and suburb free? I thought about going into medical physics or some other medical support role. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

Hei
I am Russian, wanted to go studying to Helsinki. At first I wanted to go studying long ago, but COVID took place and I went to college in Russia. I deceit to learn Finnish language (I knew it on a begginer level only back then), and go to the university in Finland after finishing college and mastering the language. I have B1-B2 level, I can understand Suomalainen but it is still hard for me to give a talk in Finnish.
I am planning to master the language to C1 level and then try to go to the universityino next 2 years. I still have got problems with declinations.
All in all, I have read some russia-related "treds" and as far as I see people mostly have good opinion on Russians and negative opinion on the government mostly. But I still would like to hear your opinion on Russian man visiting your country nowadays.
Also I would like ask for a recommendation on Finnish literature that would not be very difficult for a non-native speaker, and would be helpfull to improve language skills (I'm into Science fiction and fantasy).
Also I often hear that there are a lot of good Finnish music, but I have never listened to any and I do not know what to start from. I enjoy mostly rock and heavy metal, I will be grateful of recommendations as well.
Sorry for the mistakes, my English level is not very high either and plus then I type in the app some words get automatically dragged into each other and mix, if you understand what I mean, so I have to always get back and correct the words myself, and I don't know how to fix this.
I will be glad to discuss different topics with you in comments, I can answer in Finnish but would still prefer English as I can express my thoughts more clearly.

I'm not an active member of this community, in fact I finished college few years back and i am working now, I frequently use reddit and saw few recommended posts in this sub where some people were feeling bad because of their JEE scores or ranks and were feeling suicidal. I was in the same path as you guys and want to tell how I dealed with the same situations in my life. I was living abroad from my childhood, and after 8th grade my parents decided to make me prepare for JEE, I had minimal idea abnout it, I left my happy life with parents abroad and came to India and joined a integrated classroom program for 4 years, During 9th and 10th i was a good student, I was scoring decent in Coaching tests and Great marks in NCERT exams. After 11th my life went to shit, Everything suddenly became hard, I couldnt score marks in anything, I was thrown to the last bath in my coaching with the ones that have no hope in life, I knew i was not going to crack JEE in the last 6 months of my 12th grade, as predicted I flunked JEE, my rank in mains was some 200,000+ I cried so bad that day because I just lost 4 years of my life where i was not with my parents and lived in a hellhole hostel for nothing. After this I got my second biggest blow, my board scores were 59%, I was super passionate about coding and wanted to sutudy computer science in some college, my dad had booked seat in VIT under NRI quota and even they rejected me due to my scores, This was the worst day in my life, my whole life shattered in front of me, I had no forseeable future.
I was feeling like shit only because i dissapointed my parents but i had some hope in myself for some wierd reason which did not let me kms, I got into an electronics course in some college because that is all i gotr for my marks, I couldnt follow my passion of copmputers, but i started putting the efforts to follow my passion, i did anything and everything that came my way, i used every resources that was avaliable to study coding, participated in hackathons, learnt so many random skills, dropshipping, trading, etc. Nothing made me a million dollars but i had the unquenchable thirst for knowledge because i wanted to prove myself, all my friends were in IITs and NITs but i was the loser.
I wanted to change this, so i started consuming random knowledge, upskill myself, but did not care about my actual course and had 15 backlogs in 3rd year, during covid my only source of entetainment was coursera and udemy, i have over 50+ certifications at this point. In my final year i cleared al my backlogs, came out of college, I had so much confidence in me and my skills that I chose not to sit for placements and started my own startup with 0 capital, scaled it to multiple users, met amazing people with it and then shut it down due to some issues, and then was offered admissions into world's top 10 universities in UK and US for my masters, deferred the admissions and chose to accept an offer from a Investment firm in India and joined them having no knowledge in finance, but i knew i could learn anything, and in a very short span of time i became the youngest VP in the company. was invited to give talks in multiple IITs, NITs, and the same VIT that rejected me. Today I can say that I am technically the most successful out of the whole batch of students in my school and college combined all because i did not give a fuck about marks and focussed on my skills.
This is a short version of my life, Im sure your life is not as bad as my life at this point, marks and college is not everything and it wont be shit in the next few years with how AI is growing so please dont take stupid decisons and focus on yourself instead of trying to make others happy.

TLDR: my ex husband’s girlfriend hates me, is controlling and abusive towards my ex, is manipulating my young children, wants to replace me as their mom, and move them to Costa Rica.
My ex husband and I were together for almost 15 years and we have two daughters that are 5 and 6 years old. I initiated our separation and divorce almost three years ago in 2021 after learning about his failed plan to have my 10 year old Pomeranian taken and euthanized while I was on vacation. We shared custody with a seven days on, seven days off schedule which was working well for us at the time. In August 2022 I sustained a serious head injury, and I agreed to a temporary emergency custody change so that the girls would stay with him full time while I recovered. During this time the county ordered that I pay him child support at $800 a month despite him making three times as much as I was and being unable to work in my usual job as a clinical therapist. What was supposed to be a temporary custody change became a nightmare when he refused to give them back. My children had been mentioning a new babysitter named Sadie (not her real name), and it became clear after a couple months that this woman was not a babysitter but his new girlfriend. I had no love for him anymore and I did not care one bit that he was seeing someone. I even told people that another positive adult in their lives was a good thing and I thought she and I could have been friends. When I first met her she seemed shy and almost intimidated by me, but it didn’t take long for it become clear that she was the dominant one in their relationship. My ex and my girls moved into her home full time and she became hostile towards me when she got more control. I was in a relationship with a man who was physically abusive and after he was arrested for assisting me, I needed a ride home from the hospital because I had an injury to my eye. I called my ex when I couldn’t get ahold of anyone else, and she volunteered to drive me home. When she got to my house, she came inside, started going through my and my boyfriend’s things, threw all of his clothes, pictures, and other personal belongings in a pile in my backyard, lit all of that on fire, and she stole his jewelry, cologne, small electronics, knives, and a BB gun. She also stole my Cricut machine and a digital picture frame off of my wall. When I asked for those things back I was told by my ex that they threw them away. I’m pretty sure that’s a lie and that they sold them, but either was it was theft. Things got worse from there, and my contact with my kids was limited to one hour a week at a secure facility with supervision and camera monitoring. This was not court ordered, there was never any CPS involvement, and my kids were never removed from care. I agreed to a TEMPORARY EMERGENCY custody change and he was given the power to have “ultimate discretion” about my parenting time with the kids and how long he should have full custody. I noticed my girls started to call Sadie Mommy, which bothered me at first but I let it go because she taking care of them full time and was in a motherly role. Then they started calling me by my first name instead of mommy. When asked them about it they said that’s what they were told to call me. My youngest who was just turning four at the time asked me if I was her “real mommy,” and it was clear that they were becoming confused. I started to complain about this and reported it all to my lawyer, the kids’ therapist, and anyone else who would listen. I was being verbally harassed and embarrassed by Sadie when I attended any school functions, sports, and dance recitals. They told me I wasn’t allowed to be there because it was outside of my supervised visitation hours, but I reminded them that it’s a public place and I had a right to attend. One day I brought new shoes I bought for them to T-ball practice and my ex and Sadie threw a fit, yelled at me in front of my kids and other parents, and ripped the shoes out of my five year old daughters hands. Later I was informed they got rid of the shoes. The next practice I came to, I was told that I was not welcome and that they were calling the police to have me served with a restraining order. I was served with two restraining that they sucessfully got ordered after lying many times in the paperwork. I have all of the screenshots and other evidence that proves they lied. They started telling the girls that they are going to move to Costa Rica where Sadie owns a second home. I raised the alarm and reported this to everyone including my attorneys who responded with: “well that’s illegal. He can’t do that.” I’m aware it’s illegal. People do illegal things all the time. Including them when they stole from me and lied on legal documents. Sadie would communicate with me while impersonating my ex and she sent at least ten unhinged, incoherent messages to me in our coparenting app that she is not supposed to have access to. She painted herself into a corner when she got a restraining order because she couldn’t harass me anymore, so she started attacking my mother, my best friend, and anyone else she could get to. She is a drunk, got fired from her job, yells and screams at my ex and my kids, threw a rock through her own house window in a fit of rage, and last night she refused to let me speak to my children on the phone when she answered my ex’s phone. I have reported all of this to my lawyers, therapists, and family members but no one takes it seriously. She had ovarian cancer ten years ago so she has no children of her own. I think she is jealous of me and my relationship with my girls. They love me and want to be with me all the time. I am so scared that she is manipulating my kids and actively working on parental alienation. My girls are young and I’m terrified of how impressionable they are and I’m scared they will be turned against me. No one will help me and no one wants to acknowledge her control and abuse. I don’t know what to do.

i am 18 almost 19. im far from my family and home. working as an english teacher which doesn’t pay good money. i got some computer skills also know some programming like backend in golang. since i was 16-17 i wanted to become a software engineer and started studying but when i was about to be 18 i was working on my english and ielts so i got 7 from ielts but at those times i was studying at bootcamp. and after i finished bootcamp i could not find a job or internship thats the reason actually i guess i became obsessed with ielts i guess cz i needed sth to occupy myself with. but after studying ielts for about 5-6 months i forgot most of the things i learnt in the coding bootcamp so i was lost and i graduated from high school. i didn’t know what to do so then i just randomly applied to one university in my country. I got in(i won grant/scholarship) it was started studying, it covered my meals, study and place to live for 1 year and obviously i became too comfortable. i just lived. but 1 month before finishing 1 year in the university i started to think about the 2year cz they wouldn’t pay for that and i was not able to pay it as well, plus i can’t ask my mom for money even if i asked she would not be able to find it, i know she’d do her best but i just dont want my mom to suffer. so i dropped out. i had 2 other friends who are exactly like me, literally, we are the same in every way. so we 3 rented an apartment about 1 month ago and found job at a learning centre, a teacher position, although it pay only $200/month we agreed cz actually it hard to find a job so we left with no other choice. now im in my apartment, did not go to work cz i dont even like it. and i’m depressed. i have to get my mom unemployed. my mom suffered too much in this life. i lost my father when i was 2 and my brother was 15 days old. my mom has been providing us since then. it’s enough. im late. this doesn’t feel right. now i have to choose sth and stick to it until i not suck at it and be able to earn money. I already know what that thing is, it’s programming but now it’s hard asf to get a job, and getting even harder. plus i wanna go abroad and live there for some time by myself, maybe study as well. also i should be able to provide myself with money while trying to get that job. so, say, i do my best to find a job in IT, it should take about 3-4 month to do that ig. or i have other choice which is retaking ielts and making it 8+ so that i will be able to get higher paying job., and with that money i can go abroad to study or just to work and explore. i dont wanna be wondering around in my 20s. i have approximately 1 year to pull my shit up and get in track.

Husband of 20 years is probably cheating on me. So here it goes, sll of my dirty secrets.
I, 45f been married to my husband 46, male for over 20 years to a man I met in my early 20’s. We have been very best friends since the day we met but it has been a rocky relationship. I am from an abusive alcoholic family and I was for a time blissfully an alcoholic along with the family. This of coarse was problematic when looking for a date. More than one boyfriend broke up with me because I drank too much, partied too hard and studied too little. Cue in my dream man, he’s responsible, well educated and a heavy drinker. We partied all night and he got up the next day, no matter how hungover and went to work. My mom said that this is normal, it’s how it’s supposed to be. If a man makes it to work everyday then he’s not an alcoholic. By her definition, only a man who misses work can be accused of drinking too much.
I married this replica of my father and for many blissful years we were married and we partied and drank. We’d drink a bottle or two of wine a few nights a week and on weekends we’d stay up all night, often having parties at our home. It was grand fun, until we had kids. All of the sudden I had to handle night feedings and morning diaper changes while tipsy, drunk or hungover. It didn’t take me long to quit, I had already quit for 9 months while pregnant and I had gotten the idea that life is better sober. But my partner didn’t agree. He was drunk most nights while I was pregnant. When I got annoyed and asked him to quit he hid the bottles. I had a second child with him in spite of the drinking (I wanted a matching set), not my best decision but I don’t regret it. When I was at the hospital he looked exhausted so I sent him home to rest. He went home and drank himself into a stupor. My mom had to drive me home from the hospital and when we got home, he was passed out on the living room floor. He slept for another 10 hours like that and he was drunk the entire first week of my daughter’s life. I had to ask my mom to help care for her since I’d had complications with the birth and had over 30 stitches.
His drinking went on for years with me going from kicking him out of the home to drinking with him. Often I would plead with him to quit and he’d refuse. On 4 occasions we separated, each time selling our home and dividing the property. But he’d get sober and he was always very sorry. At this point we had two kids and I needed the help.
Over time things got better and he went years and years without drinking. I had quit altogether after our first child. In fact things go so much better that he asked to start drinking again. He rationalized that he had been sober for 5 years and that he can handle one of two drinks a week. I agreed under the following terms, he can have up to two drinks with dinner once a week. I know this is a terrible decision, I think it’s fair to say that there is a pattern here of gawd awful decisions on my part. This 2 drink agreement lasted a few months but of course two drinks turned into 3, then it turned into a couple nights a week. I saw it was getting out of hand and I banned drinking again.
In the meantime my partner has gotten substantially better looking. It’s through a combination of favourable genetics, some recent work done and some excellent supplements. He aged well going from a 6.5 in his 20’s to a current day 8.5. More than that he’d recently opened a business and it was booming. For the first time in our married life he started to out earn me. For the first 20 years I was the primary wage earner, but now he’s making the more than me (this is temporary as my wage is about to pick up). The woman are noticing him and It’s not lost on me or him. We went to Mexico last year and women were practically following him around and throwing themselves at him. We go out to eat and woman hit on him. They hit on him at the grocery store and they hit on him at work. To his credit he does not respond to this in front of me or the kids. Nor have I ever heard of him hitting on somebody.
I’m a solid 7 - 7.5. I’ve aged okay, I look decent, I’m maybe a little heavier as size 10. But I’m not a hot young thing giggling at him. I am a wife and a mother, so not always sexy, but still quite a lot prettier than average. But realistically on the open market, I’m probably not attracting an 8.5 that earns his kind of money.
About 8 months ago he started coming home from work drunk. He was hiding it but I could smell the booze on his breath. He claimed it was heartburn but I knew better and I ignored it. I just wanted everything to be okay. There was a woman he was working with, he claimed to hate her, she seemed overly interested in him. There were a few incidents, that made me suspicious but he claimed he hated her. He was never home late from work. She moved away and he seemed fine and I was relieved. But a few months after this the drinking started, along with my denial. I guess I kinda figured that who cares if he cheated, she moved away. Now we can get on with our lives.
Recently he’s coming home from work late, but not too late. It’s an hour late here and there. Sometimes he’d claim that he’d have to stay an extra hour. A few times he went completely missing and claimed to have fallen asleep at the office. The problem is that I don’t really know his hours, it’s possible he’s done earlier. For context, he is self employed and rents a space. But other people rent spaces there too,
He’s been coming home drunker and drunker lately while still denying he’s been drinking. I’m ashamed to admit it but I ignored it to the point where I let him drive the kids a few times like that. I was just so far into denial, but I knew somewhere deep down that he was drunk.
He’s normally off work at 5pm and in the car by 5:10pm. But lately he’s not in the car until 5:45pm, ignoring my calls and sometimes coming into the house as late as 6pm. I mean it’s only 45 minutes right? A few times he’d go missing until 7:30 or 8pm and he’d say that he hate a late client appointment and had told me but I forgot. Strangely he’s never hungry when he gets home, in spite of being at work all day. In fact he’s not hungry 2 - 3 times a week. He told me that his stomach is bothering him.
Last night he went missing so I went to his office to look for him. I found him asleep in his office alone with an empty bottle of hard alcohol on his desk. I checked his office drawer and it was full of empty bottles. The office is a disaster, messy and all that. I’m not sure how he sees clients in a room like that and I’m worried that he’s taking appointments drunk. His business is doing really well and building it up was a joint effort. I’m worried that his drinking will destroy everything we built.
I woke him up and he was visibly drunk. He told me that he wants to stay at the office to sleep it off and that no he doesn’t want to talk about it and he didn’t come home. It’s been 6 hours. The thing is, that he hates sleeping in his work clothes and his office is desperately uncomfortable. I just don’t see him staying there overnight alone.
When the drinking flared up 6 months ago, it was just him drinking alone. But when he was sober he was still my best friend. But over time he’s stopped responding when I speak. He tells me that he drinks because he can’t stand to listen to my problems anymore. If I ask him about his day I get a one word answer. More and more he looks at me with contempt while drinking. But even stranger, he wants sex more often, I don’t know why this is. But he’s weird about it and hounding me. He’s going on and on about how to wants to try a sex position we’ve never done, talking about how much he likes it. He’s also looking over my shoulder and checking my phone, which is new. it’s intrusive as I don’t even know his passcode and feel no temptation to check his phone.
He gets paid in cash and has a drawer full of it at the office so I can’t check his cards.
Now I know what you are going to say. He’s definitely cheating, I mean he probably is. But we live in a no fault place so what does it matter if I get proof or not? Also I have two kids to think of and we aren’t in a financial position to leave. I will need time to pay down our joint debt and I need a new job. I’m thinking that the best course of action is to stay silent and improve my situation so that I can support my kids and myself. I think this works for him too as he doesn’t want to get stuck with all sorts of child support or alimony. Giving me time to get back on my feet and improve my financial position works for both of us.
The thing is that if I even bring up getting divorced or separated he says that I am the light of his life. He says that he loves me and that I’m his best friend. He says that he doesn’t want to leave. Then I feel so badly. If I even broach the topic of separating, he’ll shut it down so quickly. He’s overwhelming and persistent and he out talks me. I think there’s no use in talking it out and I don’t see us living together well under some sort of “arrangement”.
Do you have any advice on what to do next? Do you have any idea why he’s acting this way? If he wants to separate why not just do it? Also what’s with the increased sex drive?
One of the oddities is that I’ve been doing really great lately. I’ve lost some weight, my hair is looking good. My business sucks but I’ve been taking on new gigs and retraining. I’m becoming a person that I’m really proud of and every day seems to be getting better. But the better I do, the more contempt he seems to have for me. I can see the bitterness in his drunkenness. And he gets drunks on nights when I have to work and when I have something important going on. He blames the drinking on me. He says that I only talk about myself (maybe I do, I’m trying to improve). He says that I ask too much of him and that I make him contribute to the house too much but I do 100% of the grocery shopping, cooking, lunches, school stuff, homework and kids activities. He comes home and goes straight to bed while complaining that he’s doing too much. Meanwhile I’m breaking myself trying to make the home perfect enough.
Is there any chance that he’s just old and tired and not cheating? I mean he’s only missing for 45 minutes a day? I should mention that he’s stopped answering my calls during the workday and stopped reading my texts.
The weird thing is that I felt relieved to find him surrounded by booze bottles and I’m glad he’s done tonight. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life begging him to be sober. Tonight I could see the contempt in his eyes towards me. I just don’t know that I can move past it. I think I just want to be free from this now.
Do you have any advice? I’ve never been through anything like this and I could use some support and guidance.
I think that taking 4 - 6 months to resolve the situation might be best. This gives me time to find a new job and to pay down some debt and bolster savings.

Since the beginning of 2024 my anxiety has been at an all time high and is seriously damaging my life. I’ve convinced myself something is seriously wrong with me health wise (heart issues, etc) even though I’ve spent 2 months having frequent cardiologist appointments that have constantly told me nothing is wrong with me. Still I am constantly worried over my heart and heart rate. It’s gotten to the point where having a normal heart rate of 70s-80s freaks me out. My Apple watch is always there for me to check my pulse. I avoid exercise or any movement for long periods of time, I’m basically bed ridden only getting up to make food or shower. My eating habits have been absolutely terrible, I’ve lost nearly 40 pounds in a span of 5 months to the point where my body is starting to be in constant pain. Anything I do to try and help cope with my anxiety isn’t working, listening to music and or watching movies makes me only more anxious because it makes my heart rate go up. My acid reflux is also spiking out of control, causing even more physical symptoms that makes my anxiety spiral even more. My primary care doctor prescribed me Sertraline and after months of being scared of taking it I finally decided enough is enough and I started 6 days ago. These past few days I’ve seriously regretted this decision but I don’t know what else to do because I can’t keep living in a constant state of fear. Since starting Sertraline my anxiety has been through the roof, I’ve been nauseous every single day, loss of appetite, elevated heart rate, and out of control thoughts. I could think of something and right away it ruins my night. Yesterday I noticed that I was breathing heavily and since then I’ve been focused on my breathing and trying to regulate it but it’s not working. I’m currently writing this during sunrise because I’ve not slept because of this stupid little thought. Anytime I close my eyes I’m back to dwelling on it. It’s like so many different things are contributing to my anxiety and I don’t know how to help it. I get so jealous that my brother is doing so much better than me at handling his anxiety, he’s so good at not giving a fuck i just wish I could trade places with him for one day! It’s so fucking debilitating…. If any of you have gone through the same thing or are currently going through this please give me any advice you have 🙏🙏

My (32f) mother passed away almost a year ago after a long fight with cancer. She and I weren't on the best terms, I was the black sheep of the family and she made sure no one spoke to me or they couldn't see my brothers. (19m)(18m)
My 19 year old brother and his gf moved in with me shortly after. They're both on assistance (welfare pretty much) and were in school. It was going alright, but my brother has my mother's attitude and cleaning skills. The house was ALWAYS a mess growing up and I have some hard OCD tendencies because of it. I can NEVER let my place get to the condition her house was in, my clean house affects my mental health too.
This year when it came to signing up for their last courses, my SIL waited until the very last minute, so she wasn't actually able to sign my brother and herself up. This was what really set me off. The only thing I've asked them to do is go to school or get a job so that they can help me afford my place with the rising costs of living.
The condition of the house is also now suffering. They sit at home all day but won't take an hour of their day to do the dishes, clean, or ANYTHING and it's really starting to get to me. I love them with all my heart, but I can't keep picking up after them like I did when we lived with my mom.
Well...My SIL comes to me the other day and she's pregnant. I begged and begged them to be careful, because the house is way too small for a kid and I don't want to listen to a baby screaming their head off in a couple months. I raised my brothers as a teenager, and it completely killed my want or need for kids in the future, I'm happy being the fun aunt. She's maybe...2 weeks along and already super excited and made it her WHOLE personality. She's had a miscarriage in the past and is super nervous and I understand the excitement, but none of us are in the place to have a child with the rising cost of living!
I feel like I'm being taken advantage of and they expect they will just be able to keep pulling this shit, and I'm almost at the end of my rope. I have my own things also going on and I can't even focus on them or get help, because therapy is goddamn expensive. I don't regret taking them in, I love them, our family has always had a lot of trouble in life and I don't want to abandon them, but this is getting to be too much. I feel like I'm in my Grandma's position when my mom was pregnant with me and she was taking care of everything.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Not everyone knows about the pregnancy and I needed to get it out there.

I'm sorry but those vocal harmonies with the new single and the very expected writing, I can't anymore. It's all over the place.
That style of music videos - no concept just flashy colours and the band playing - it's just so lazy and old.
Also everything being focused on the vocalist is so very cheesy to me. Maybe I'm picking hairs at this point, but why is he standing in front of the dancers with all the camera work focusing on him, why even have dancers then? I couldn't even pay attention to what they're doing, they're literally mostly out of frame.
I can't say I'm hopeful about the album with that introduction but I'm definitely going to give it a listen with an open mind, hopefully I can get something out of it.

(Only Europe, Please) - short note - If you're not into reading or receiving long messages,don't read any further + Please If you don't want to read everything because of my post being too long for you & instead of reading It all - ..skip some parts - find another person to talk to.Let's respect each other and our free time. All people criticizing/making fun of me & other people - will be blocked.Pretty much as people questioning my post and giving me unsolicited advice.I'm not here for any conflicts and I know I can't please everyone - I know I never will.. However It's me who should feel comfortable in my new potential friendship & obviously someone who wants to be my friend - not the whole world.. which is why I don't need any advice from people who don't even want to be a part of my life. The amount of rude people on Reddit always criticizing others and making fun of them is unbelievably high but let me tell you something - NEVER let anyone make choices for you and criticize you only because you're different! Always fight for your dreams and never let anyone make you think you're worthless! It's your life and you're the one deciding what's best for you - If you want to judge me despite not even wanting to talk to me or give me advice better block me! I'm an adult woman and I make all decisions on my own.I'm not trying to "fit in" and be like everyone else - just to get more attention.Accept me for who I am or let go - is my motto.
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Hello guys! 🙂 (read everything before you decide to send me a message) Please send me a message ONLY If you're in the same situation and If your expectations are the same as mine.I want to find like minded people from Europe (Why Europe? Read my post to find out) I'm looking for something permanent (remember - you can feel lonely even If you're surrounded by others - If there's no emotional bond) I'm fed up of meeting people who never make time for me & only text me once or twice a week to ask me "what are you up to?" Out of boredom.I don't want to meet people asking others a million of questions like "what's your favorite movie?" Just to give them one word answer and ask them another question "and music? Your favorite song?" I'm looking for something "deeper" & different 🙂
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What kind of friend would I like to find? Someone to talk to on a daily basis - Someone who needs It & wants It just as much as me
🤍
What are my expectations? I would like to meet someone in a similar situation – why? Because I honestly feel like only a person with the same expectations and a similar outlook on life would get along with me & because I feel more comfortable talking to people like me..Friendless people who need a strong bond - people without friends and partners.. Don't get me wrong…Most people deserve to be happy and It's good to have friends but people who have friends or families in real life are usually more focused on them (which is completely understandable) & have less time for others + I simply don't want to be replaced by anyone..I kind of envy people who can call others , true friends given I don't have an emotional bond with any of my acquaintances. Please send me a message only If you're not In a relationship and don't have friends for the same reasons I've already mentioned before
★
🤍
Whenever I hear that others have friends I simply get sad because (believe it or not) If I had to choose between 20 people to talk to (acquaintances) and one special person - I'd choose that one special person without any hesitation .
★
🤍
I also want to talk to others every day because..I want to see someone’s effort & be someone's first choice - not another person to have random conversations with..some people ask me "Why do you want to talk to people from Europe?" Well..Because I would like to see someone I'd get along with - In the far future - face to face :) + I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to receive a message - waiting 6 hours to receive a message is more than enough
★
🤍
I'm by no means criticizing people who don't want to talk to others often / People who really are super busy & People who want to find someone to have unimportant conversations with - I'm aware that not everyone has the same expectations which is why everything you're reading now - is here for a reason :) All I'm suggesting is - I don't want anything temporary and I don't want to be the one always giving more than receiving.Listen people - I used to ignore being..ignored by others..always being just an option to talk to during tough times or moments of boredom.I was too young to realize that I was never important enough for most people that were a part of my life. I don't know who needs to hear this but..No one is too busy to make time for you! People make excuses to avoid others because they prioritize everything and (maybe) everyone..over them. It's true that most people are busy - but It takes only a few seconds to start a conversation (If you're into short messages) and a few minutes (1-10/15) to type a long message . Don't let anyone lie to you.
★
🤍
Truth is that most people either don't like you enough to make time for you or just simply - feel no need to talk to others often but are they too busy? No..You don't need to send me a message just to ask me and tell me "Do you really want to talk every day? I like long messages but I can't promise to contact you often" If you really are unsure please don't send me a message.I don't need more acquaintances aka people to talk to - occasionally.
🤍
I'm not trying to sound rude but conversations once or twice a week wouldn't be enough for me and I don't need them... Let me tell you one thing – A true friend would never just give up on you for no reason :) It’s always possible to find someone to have a random conversation with – someone willing to send you one message once or twice a week..but..It’s almost impossible to find people willing to make more time for you.
★
🤍
I’m not asking a busy person to make time for me by changing some plans! Absolutely not! I’m here to find someone who wants to talk daily (throughout the day or maybe even night) of one’s own will.Someone looking for the same kind of connection.Strong friendships are based on mutual support. One of the best things you can do for a friend in need, is just to be there for them when they want to talk.I often see posts from people who always say how friendless they are because they don't feel loved or appreciated by their "friends" remember! A true friend - someone who truly likes you or someone who wants to get to know you - will always find time for you.
★
🤍
I'm not interested in small talk/short messages - I love long and meaningful conversations. It's so easy to find someone who loves abbreviations and questions like "How are you?" How was your day? Or what are you interested in? But so hard/almost impossible to find a person who knows how to keep a conversation going & show others some effort.Building and maintaining friendships takes time and effort.Never allow pursuits or possessions to become bigger priorities than your relations with other people.Close friendships are so important to us because they are so difficult to form + Having friends can help you feel as if you belong to something that brings purpose and connection to your life
🤍
• I do NOT respond to any „Hey,hmu” or „u want to talk?” type of messages (super short messages or messages full of abbreviations – I literally can’t stand abbreviations and acronyms in text messages) ALL messages full of abbreviations will immediately be ignored.I also don't like it when people ignore everything I say in private messages just to focus on a random question or? When they start talking only about themselves and don't ever ask me anything. I love conversations with people referring to everything I say...I want everything I say and do - to be reciprocated
🤍
• No NSFW profiles (checking mental health subreddits NOT included as I'm a huge empath and always try to understand others) - Please! I'm not looking for anyone to flirt with and I'm not looking for a partner either. I always check people's profiles (even comment history) - To avoid guys, trying to get inappropriate pictures from adult women or? flirt with them + I don't want to see you with no clothes on so If you're on Reddit only because you want others to see what's underneath your clothes - I'm not for you! I just simply don't want to see any s e x related activity on your profile If you want to talk to me.
🤍
• If both of us (you and I) are from the same country (I live in a non-English speaking country) - I want to communicate with you in our first language! No - Not because I don't understand English - because as you see - I do. Why then? English is simply overrated and people don't appreciate other languages as much as they should. So.. If we're from the same country and you want to talk only in English (which is quite common on reddit) - Talk to someone else. I just don't want to talk to a person from the same country as mine - in a foreign language as It's just something I don't understand even If all you want is to improve your language skills
🤍
• Please only adult people 18-36 (age range) It doesn't matter to me If you're younger or older than me (as long as you're not underage) So.. don't worry! I just want to have discussions with emotionally mature people :)
🤍
• I don’t respond to messages I don’t find interesting even If they're long - If after receiving and reading your message I don't feel comfortable or think "I wouldn't get along with him/her" I simply do not respond (what I’m suggesting is that I don’t always respond to someone’s first or second message because..sometimes you just know If you’d get along with someone or not- I’d never ignore anyone after days or weeks of daily conversations though) just because I don’t want to do anything forcefully & because I don’t want to lead anyone on. I read all messages but I definitely don't respond to all of them! I want to make it clear because I don't want to be accused of not responding and not reading people's messages! - Some people don't message me back as well and even If It's a bit disappointing I'm ok with that! - as long as there's no emotional bond - Not responding to someone's first or second message Is completely OK! If people think they wouldn't get along with a stranger - is there a reason to start a conversation? I don't think so. I can't stand being ignored after days or weeks of daily conversations and seeing people changing priorities over time.. but that's something different - something I don't want to go through ever again for real. If I'm really interested in someone's message it's impossible to hear from me "I'm too busy" because I know myself and If I had no time for others - I wouldn't be here. I don't want to pretend someone I'm not and always try to find some cheap excuses to avoid others. (unlike most people who don't want to talk to others)
🤍
• Don’t ask me “Can you tell me something about yourself?” If you really want to get to know me - you can ask me questions :) I'm an open book.
🤍
• It would be better If you guys were into emojis - like me - to describe your emotions In text messages. Two emojis - 🙂 and 🙁 are completely enough! I just don't like emotionless conversations.I also don't like it when people say "yeah" or yea"as it sounds dismissively. First impression Is everything to me! I want to see your kindness even in a text message - Emojis are very helpful to express your emotions.I don't want to meet people who say "crying Is a weakness" - It's OK to cry even If you're a guy!
🤍
• I want to talk on reddit first (just to make sure If I'd get along with you) before moving to Discord or some other app
🤍
• I would rather talk to a homebody - not another person who always has something to do as people who are very busy don't even have time for daily conversations
🤍
• If you're another person interested only in "childish conversations" such as "HEYOOO! I'M BORED! Ya like Pizza or cheese? xDDDD 🤣" I'm begging you! Don't send me a message.I'm not a child anymore and such messages don't make me smile or laugh.I'm looking for someone interested In serious discussions - not another person just seeking some entertainment out of boredom . Conversations with sarcastic undertones (even when It comes to some emojis such as 🤣😂) are not for me. Your typing style matters to me! Why? when It comes to online conversations with someone new - It's not always possible to know If someone Is laughing at you.. or with you. Let me tell you something else! Jokes about cancer, disabilities and death are UNACCEPTABLE to me. If you find joy In someone else's misfortune you are not a person I want to know.
🤍
• Time response matters to me a lot! I would never ask anyone to be online all day long and I'm NOT asking any of you for any instant messaging as I'm someone who would rather wait an hour or two to receive a proper response instead of some short and pointless messages but I'm interested only in daily conversations and I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to get a message from you.I don't need unbelievably long messages either! Messages as long as the second paragraph of my post - are completely enough. If you like longer messages? you can send me a longer message, but If you want to send me one word or one sentence as a response to my post - don't expect a reaction from me. I don't want to come across as rude - I just don't want to waste your time
🤍
• I'm strongly AGAINST picking on people you don't even want to chat with - and making fun of them! I can't stand people who criticize others publicly or make fun of them! (only because they disagree with someone they don't even know) There's no place In my life for someone using Reddit, to hurt other people
🤍
• I'm not into foul language and I definitely don't want to talk to people who swear a lot...
🤍
• I want to meet assertive people who know what they want and always stand up for their friends
🤍
• I want to meet someone willing to call me In the future, someone spontaneously sending me pictures of animals or food, et cetera. I want more than just text conversations.. 🌻
🤍
Why can’t you see any of my hobbies listed down below? Because what really matters to me is..who you are (If you’re honest, talkative ,understanding, caring and trustworthy – for example) just simply – It matters to me what you’re like! not what you like.Don’t get me wrong – you can tell me what your hobbies are but from my point of view - people's hobbies are important - If you want to find a gaming buddy or If you want to meet someone to hang out with in real life and..go bowling for example.What most people seem to care about are other people's passions – I don’t. I get along with other people despite having completely different hobbies but I absolutely don’t get along with people way different than me (different expectations and outlook on life – way different sense of humor or personality traits – It’s just an example) It doesn't make ANY DIFFERENCE to me If you're a gamer or? Someone interested in photography! It doesn't make any difference - > as long as you're talkative and kind and If you also want to find someone willing to stay in your life..for good - But If you're into small talk and all you want is to...type and receive super short messages or If you're here only because you're bored and don't know what to do + If you're a very sarcastic person - I'm definitely not for you! I don't get along with overly sarcastic people turning everything into a joke. Friendships should be natural – not forced. I wouldn't get along with people who laugh at everything.. In my opinion most people are way too sarcastic.. It's quite sad... Sarcasm can also be another form of passive-aggressive behavior.
★
🤍
People who want to be to friends should feel comfortable and have something in common. No - not necessarily a similar taste in music or movies but something else..Most friendships don't fizzle out because of people not having the same hobbies but..because they just simply have different expectations when It comes to something important.I'm not here out of boredom and trust me - I'm not here to meet as many people as possible.I choose quality over quantity.I highly value myself and my time & Sometimes one person but a person who makes you feel comfortable and understood - is more than enough :) We ALL can choose what kind of people we’d like to talk to and maybe even become really good friends with and I? I don’t want anyone to be disappointed.We all have some expectations after all.I know that people don't have to talk as often as possible in order to become friends but I'm interested only in daily conversations. If you really need someone to talk to due to loneliness and If you have time to talk to me daily (throughout the day and maybe even night) I always make time for others.I'm literally always available.I could even stay up all night long only to talk to someone important to me. I’m ready to commit but only If there’s some chemistry between me and someone else.I don’t do anything forcefully.
★
🤍
If you want to talk to me tell me your story - tell me why you're here, what kind of friend would you like to meet :) Et cetera.Such messages are way more interesting to me than...someone's long list of hobbies. I know! It's unusual on reddit but I don't make friends based on hobbies..I want to meet someone with the same mindset as mine to finally feel understood and get close to someone new. You can share your problems with me - I absolutely don't mind "complaining" as I've been through a lot in my life.What do people usually tell you when you tell them that something's wrong? "Don't complain" or "Life's not over yet - one day you'll be happy" or "There are worse situations than yours" and..obviously "Find a therapist" Life's not a fairytale and sometimes things don't go as planned.Emotions shouldn't be bottled up.I'm sick of people always telling others "everything's gonna be ok" move on " & more..Trust me people - not everyone wants to hear "Just believe in yourself and everything's gonna be ok" Some people take it as reassurance - but others? They would rather hear something different 🙁Imagine being told that things will be okay, only for them to get worse..Do you guys know why telling someone "everything's gonna be ok" Is wrong? Because you can't see the future.
★
🤍
You can't guarantee others that one day they'll finally be happy + when It comes to social interactions - We're responsible only for ourselves - not others & as you guys know people let us down quite often (sometimes even when there's no reason) so instead of telling people how they should move on, forget everything and be happy or asking them to find a therapist - be there for them! Always be willing to listen to them If you really like them or want to get to know them & don't suggest everyone in a tough situation to find a therapist because even the best therapist won't ever replace a true friend + It's quite normal to be disappointed If people always do something to hurt you. Sharing your hardships with other people in a very similar situation or exactly the same one - is VERY helpful If the other person understands you & wants to start all over by just letting it all out! Feeling emotional support instead of always hearing some "positive quotes" or someone saying "Stop complaining let's talk about something else - Is very important! "Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on. I appreciate sensitive people who always try to understand others. If after hearing a sad story all you want to say is "forget the past and move on" you're not for me. It's important to be a good listener and provide emotional support to others
★
🤍
Please - If you're a completely different person than the described type of person I'm looking for (If you love abbreviations,If you don't need a stable friendship, If you're sarcastic and quiet) or If you simply disagree with my post - don't force yourself to send me a message.I want my new potential friendship to be natural which is why I want you to contact me only If your needs are the same - I don't want you to pretend someone you're not - only to please me - Pretending to be someone you're not - is the worst.I want to finally be happy again & find someone "always" wanting to talk - sending me random pictures throughout the day - food pictures or pictures of some animals. What is the most important to me? I want to find people who value online friendships as much as they would value real life ones as there's another human being on the other side
★
🤍
No comments please.Only Private messages and chat requests 🌺
I know It's possible to meet people with exactly the same expectations as mine but It's just not easy because most people are Interested In temporary and entertaining conversations. People like me are just "different" I really want to finally find someone who loves emojis as much as I do.. someone who loves sweet, warm and serious discussions at the same time. Emojis really do - change conversations 😊

Disclaimer: I do not speak Korean. This is purely translated by machine with a lot of cleanup afterward. With that in mind, I am open to criticism to improve these translations. Enjoy!
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Chapter 422
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Ding. Ding. Ding.
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- Opportunity arises within crisis. You have gained new enlightenment amidst a life-and-death battle!
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- [Middle Dantian] has been opened!
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- With the opening of the [Middle Dantian], all stats have increased by 20!
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- The effects of [Qi Cultivation] have greatly improved!
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- Your ability to understand and manipulate the flow of Qi has been greatly enhanced!
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- Your internal and external states have been strengthened!
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.
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.
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The relentless System notifications echoed in my ears, their cadence like a persistent hammer.
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A sudden gust of wind swept through, playing with my sweat-drenched hair as a newfound vigor suffused my body.
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A clear, resonant bell chimed, marking the culmination of my transformation.
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Ding.
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- As a reward for your enlightenment, you have gained a large amount of experience points!
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- As a reward for your enlightenment, you have gained 50 bonus points!
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- Level up!
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- As a result of leveling up, all status effects, fatigue, and some injuries are recovered!
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- The status abnormality, [Curse], has been lifted!
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- Temporarily reduced stats have been restored to their original state!
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I wasn't the only one who felt such changes.
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No hand moves unseen by its master. The Arch Lich, sensing the dissolution of his curse, voiced his disbelief in a tone thick with suspicion.
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- How did you...?!
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His words, laden with myriad unspoken queries, met only my nonchalant shrug.
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"Well."
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- Well?
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"Yes, well."
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- Do you think that explains it?
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"Obviously not. But do I really need to explain myself to you?"
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From the flickering light in his eyes, incredulity was unmistakable.
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- You're not a mage, are you?
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"I did want to be a mage. They get paid more, you know. But I just don't have the talent for it. Nor the brains."
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- Even those you call Grand Mages couldn't easily dispel my magic like this.
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"There's nothing to it, really."
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- This makes no sense!
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I conceded silently.
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The Arch Lich's mastery was undeniably beyond mine.
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Even I, having long surpassed the ordinary bounds of a Hunter, struggled against his curses and the perilous illusions crafted from bone spears.
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Without my recent enlightenment, I might not have stood here at all.
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But...
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"So what are you going to do about it?"
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- ...!
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The System was on my side; I had simply utilized the strength and resources it provided to navigate through the crisis.
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If he thinks that's unfair, he can use the System himself.
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"That's just how the world works. It's annoying and frustrating, but you just have to bear with it and move on. It's already happened. Right?"
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The Skeleton Warlord, previously howling in rage until a moment ago, now murmured under his breath.
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- Wow, you really do speak well.
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That's just how I am.
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- You wicked human. It doesn't look like he's going to just let it go and move on.
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The Skeleton Warlord was right.
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Suddenly, a chilling voice cut through the air, followed by a tempest of formidable magical energy.
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- Unleash Sonic Buster.
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Simultaneously.
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Whoosh, boom!
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A blast of densely compressed air erupted.
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Its sheer velocity turned concrete to dust and twisted steel rebars like twigs.
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The shockwave shattered the windows of a nearby skyscraper, sweeping up a storm of glass shards.
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In an instant, before I could even blink, the devastating wind was mere inches from my face.
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- Human!
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The scream of the Skeleton Warlord resounded from my inventory.
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Was it concern for his own fate, or anxiety over mine?
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Regardless, the reason held little weight.
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I was no longer the same person I had been mere moments ago.
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'Ah.'
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A warmth blossomed in my chest. The spot known to martial artists as the Middle Dantian had fully opened.
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Suddenly, I understood everything around me. I felt it on my skin and saw it with acute clarity.
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'So that's how it is.'
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Time seemed to stretch, the world slowing to a crawl around me, rendering everything sharply defined and vivid.
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A colossal orb of wind, launched like a slicing blade, and the intricate flow of magic that propelled it.
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Shhhh!
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Everything has a core, magic included. With the opening of my middle dantian, I could discern that core.
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'Now.'
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In this decelerated reality, I thrust my spear forward. The formidable orb of wind, previously unstoppable, cleaved neatly in two by the blade of White Flames.
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The split fragments of the wind, once a unified force, now dispersed into hundreds, then thousands of smaller currents. Stripped of their magical command, they cascaded to the earth in a chaotic ballet.
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Swoosh, crash!
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The winds whipped around, tousling my clothes and hair. I raised my head to face the Arch Lich, my expression tinged with a slight smile.
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"Come down here. My neck hurts."
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- You...!
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"Fine, I'll come up."
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Crack, boom!
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A single step.
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The ground beneath me shattered, and I propelled myself toward the grey expanse above.
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* * *
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Boom!
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As Jin Tae-Kyung launched into the air, the Arch Lich grasped the gravity of the situation.
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'I can't let this human approach.'
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Avoiding melee combat was a basic rule for any mage, yet it held a new significance for the Arch Lich now.
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'To think this body feels threatened by a mere human.'
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He prided himself on having reached the pinnacle of black magic.
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Despite the considerable drain on his power during his resurrection, the Arch Lich still wielded more magical might than any Grand Mage.
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Yet, the human confronting him now... posed a genuine threat.
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'Yes, just like that one back then.'
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It was a memory he desperately wanted to forget. Gritting his teeth, the Arch Lich summoned his magic.
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- Gravity!
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This time, his command wasn't just a shout but a formidable wave of power, unleashing an invisible, formless force that crushed everything within its vast reach.
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Even an S-rank Hunter like Jin Tae-Kyung could hardly withstand the overwhelming pressure closing in on him.
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Bang!
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A burst of compressed air shot from beneath Jin Tae-Kyung's feet as he executed the Void-Trampling Step, his body darting out of the gravity's lethal embrace.
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His movements, sharp and swift as a hawk's, far surpassed those of any ordinary flyer.
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'What the hell.'
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The Arch Lich's eyes darkened as he watched Jin Tae-Kyung slice through the air, rapidly closing the distance.
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It was clear now; Jin Tae-Kyung had not only accurately determined the range of the gravity spell but evaded it with uncanny skill.
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'It wasn't mere luck that he dispelled the illusion magic. Then...'
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Whoooosh!
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Magic surged from the Arch Lich, vibrating the very air around him.
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- Gravity. Gravity. Gravity.
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He cast the high-level spell repeatedly, a feat beyond even the most adept mages. With this, the Arch Lich believed he would overpower Jin Tae-Kyung this time.
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'Fall, human.'
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Instead of increasing the force, he had expanded the spell's reach, creating a gravitational field vast enough to ensnare any within its grip...
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Screech!
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Doubt flickered in the Arch Lich's gaze.
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Simultaneously, the crushing spell around Jin Tae-Kyung unraveled, its magical link severed as if sliced by an unseen blade.
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Caught off-guard, the Arch Lich watched as Jin Tae-Kyung propelled himself forward, stepping into the void and rocketing upwards like a cannonball.
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Boom! Sssshhhh!
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With a deafening sonic boom, Jin Tae-Kyung soared, not merely in front but rising above the Arch Lich, and he brought down the White Flames with devastating force.
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Whoosh, a streak of blue flames surged towards the Arch Lich.
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Crash!
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In the slowed-down reality, an invisible shield around the Arch Lich shattered like glass.
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In that moment, the flames of Protective Qi, fueled by three gapjas of Scorching Yang Qi, penetrated the multitude of defensive spells cloaking the Arch Lich.
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- Great Bone Wall!
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With a grim command, a barrier of black bones erupted from the void.
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This top-tier defensive magic, materializing merely a meter away, met the spear blade wreathed in flames.
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In the ashen sky, a massive shockwave boomed and thunder roared around the two foes divided by the Bone Wall.
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Whooooah!
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The air burst with intensity, dispersing clouds that had roamed the high skies. Buildings teetering on collapse crumbled, and half-decayed bodies were whisked away by the winds.
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Yet, the two beings responsible for this chaos faced each other across the barrier, their gazes steady.
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"It was a waste, wasn't it?"
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- Yes, indeed. No, wait...
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The Arch Lich paused, his eyes fixated on the mystical spear blade that had penetrated the center of the wall.
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- It was dangerous.
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The length of the spear blade that passed through the Bone Wall was only about the length of a finger, and the burst of Protective Qi had not even grazed his nose.
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It was fortunate for the Arch Lich and regrettable for Jin Tae-Kyung.
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"You're lucky, you."
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- Arrogant human, I must admit.
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"What?"
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Jin Tae-Kyung, taken aback, listened as the Arch Lich spoke more deliberately.
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- You would be worthy of this win, if you truly are the Adversary.
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"...The Adversary?"
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- Yes. The King's Adversary. The eternal rival entangled by the whims of the gods. I cannot be certain yet... but perhaps that's why I was able to rise again from the River of Death.
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Jin Tae-Kyung’s brow furrowed. What does the King's Adversary mean, and what was this talk of the whims of the gods?
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"Are you a second-year middle school student? Clear away these bones and show me your right hand. Let's see if you have a Black Flame Dragon." [Note: this reference is a bit intricate. The "Black Flame Dragon" part originates from the YuYu Hakusho anime/manga, in which one of the characters has a Black Flame Dragon living in his right arm. The "second year middle school" part references a concept called "chuunibyou", which comes from the light novel "Even with Chuunibyou, I Want to Fall in Love!", which heavily references "YuYu Hakusho". The concept of "chuunibyou" describes a particular stage in adolescence where individuals might hold delusional beliefs of grandeur, pretending to have secret knowledge or hidden powers. It's typically characterized by dramatic, over-the-top behavior, which is often a source of embarrassment later in life. This concept was vastly popularized by the anime, "Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions!"]
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The Arch Lich shook his head.
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- This is something neither you nor I can understand. But one thing is certain.
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His eyes, previously dimly glowing red, now blazed with intensity.
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Initially, he had merely thought of him as a powerful, albeit strange, human. Now, his perception had shifted.
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Memories from decades ago flooded back, when he had roamed the planet in service to the King.
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And the face of that human he had encountered on the day he fell into the River of Death.
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'The Adversary.'
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The human who had not only slain him but had also assassinated the King.
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The Arch Lich tried to halt him but failed; he attempted to close the distance but could not bridge it. This human was the only one the Arch Lich had ever truly feared.
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Amidst the tumult of battle with Jin Tae-Kyung, memories of that fearful day surfaced.
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- You... will surely die here.
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His voice, grim yet resolute, reverberated through the air.
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Jin Tae-Kyung’s reply was dismissive and direct.
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"What are you talking about, idiot?"
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Then, in the blink of an eye,
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"Eat this."
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Whoosh. Boom!
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With calm defiance, Jin Tae-Kyung unleashed a fist wreathed in blue flames, obliterating everything before it.
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It met the barrier of black bones head-on.
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Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist.
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Crack!
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The seemingly impenetrable Bone Wall shattered.
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Through the cloud of bone shards, Jin Tae-Kyung, his face impassive, declared,
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"It's much better this way. No more neck pain."
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- ...!
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"Down, boy."
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Pop!
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Like a streak of lightning, his fist shot forward, connecting squarely with the Arch Lich’s jaw.
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Who knows if I can post this here, but I'm going to anyway.
Are we ever going to do away with discussion post requirements? It's so crazy to think that when I first did online schooling for college nearly 15 years ago, it was exactly the same. I guess what I'm saying is, it's time for this dinosaur to face extinction.
Discussion posts are the most counterproductive thing I have ever seen. Not once have I learned something new from a discussion post. We're all regurgitating the same information. And then we're expected to respond to our peers with MORE information? What a joke!
This week, my discussion responses require me to, in both responses, discuss how I'd troubleshoot an issue with a computer where the OS isn't recommended for the hardware. A Mac running Windows, for example. Why do I have to do that twice? Am I supposed to come up with a new way to troubleshoot it in the second response? This is seriously a joke.
And yes, I knew what I was getting into when I came to SNHU with discussion posts. Sure, I could have gone to WGU or something. But I thought I would give it a chance since its been so long ago that I tried this before. Nothing has changed. Why are we still required to do discussion posts? This is not how we have conversations in the real world. Someone isn't going to tell me WHY they agree with what I said about something. They are just going to nod their head and move along. We don't do that in real life. It's not preparing us for anything in the workforce. At all.
I would much rather move to something like a Discord or something like that where we can have real discussion. But forcing fake discussion as a grade is kind of gross. There's got to be a better way. You can't tell me that we're on the cusp of mainstream quantum computing but somehow the education system can't figure our a way to move past this antiquated garbage.
End rant.

(Only Europe, Please) - short note - If you're not into reading or receiving long messages,don't read any further + Please If you don't want to read everything because of my post being too long for you & instead of reading It all - ..skip some parts - find another person to talk to.Let's respect each other and our free time. All people criticizing/making fun of me & other people - will be blocked.Pretty much as people questioning my post and giving me unsolicited advice.I'm not here for any conflicts and I know I can't please everyone - I know I never will.. However It's me who should feel comfortable in my new potential friendship & obviously someone who wants to be my friend - not the whole world.. which is why I don't need any advice from people who don't even want to be a part of my life. The amount of rude people on Reddit always criticizing others and making fun of them is unbelievably high but let me tell you something - NEVER let anyone make choices for you and criticize you only because you're different! Always fight for your dreams and never let anyone make you think you're worthless! It's your life and you're the one deciding what's best for you - If you want to judge me despite not even wanting to talk to me or give me advice better block me! I'm an adult woman and I make all decisions on my own.I'm not trying to "fit in" and be like everyone else - just to get more attention.Accept me for who I am or let go - is my motto.
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Hello guys! 🙂 (read everything before you decide to send me a message) Please send me a message ONLY If you're in the same situation and If your expectations are the same as mine.I want to find like minded people from Europe (Why Europe? Read my post to find out) I'm looking for something permanent (remember - you can feel lonely even If you're surrounded by others - If there's no emotional bond) I'm fed up of meeting people who never make time for me & only text me once or twice a week to ask me "what are you up to?" Out of boredom.I don't want to meet people asking others a million of questions like "what's your favorite movie?" Just to give them one word answer and ask them another question "and music? Your favorite song?" I'm looking for something "deeper" & different 🙂
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What kind of friend would I like to find? Someone to talk to on a daily basis - Someone who needs It & wants It just as much as me
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What are my expectations? I would like to meet someone in a similar situation – why? Because I honestly feel like only a person with the same expectations and a similar outlook on life would get along with me & because I feel more comfortable talking to people like me..Friendless people who need a strong bond - people without friends and partners.. Don't get me wrong…Most people deserve to be happy and It's good to have friends but people who have friends or families in real life are usually more focused on them (which is completely understandable) & have less time for others + I simply don't want to be replaced by anyone..I kind of envy people who can call others , true friends given I don't have an emotional bond with any of my acquaintances. Please send me a message only If you're not In a relationship and don't have friends for the same reasons I've already mentioned before
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Whenever I hear that others have friends I simply get sad because (believe it or not) If I had to choose between 20 people to talk to (acquaintances) and one special person - I'd choose that one special person without any hesitation .
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I also want to talk to others every day because..I want to see someone’s effort & be someone's first choice - not another person to have random conversations with..some people ask me "Why do you want to talk to people from Europe?" Well..Because I would like to see someone I'd get along with - In the far future - face to face :) + I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to receive a message - waiting 6 hours to receive a message is more than enough
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I'm by no means criticizing people who don't want to talk to others often / People who really are super busy & People who want to find someone to have unimportant conversations with - I'm aware that not everyone has the same expectations which is why everything you're reading now - is here for a reason :) All I'm suggesting is - I don't want anything temporary and I don't want to be the one always giving more than receiving.Listen people - I used to ignore being..ignored by others..always being just an option to talk to during tough times or moments of boredom.I was too young to realize that I was never important enough for most people that were a part of my life. I don't know who needs to hear this but..No one is too busy to make time for you! People make excuses to avoid others because they prioritize everything and (maybe) everyone..over them. It's true that most people are busy - but It takes only a few seconds to start a conversation (If you're into short messages) and a few minutes (1-10/15) to type a long message . Don't let anyone lie to you.
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Truth is that most people either don't like you enough to make time for you or just simply - feel no need to talk to others often but are they too busy? No..You don't need to send me a message just to ask me and tell me "Do you really want to talk every day? I like long messages but I can't promise to contact you often" If you really are unsure please don't send me a message.I don't need more acquaintances aka people to talk to - occasionally.
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I'm not trying to sound rude but conversations once or twice a week wouldn't be enough for me and I don't need them... Let me tell you one thing – A true friend would never just give up on you for no reason :) It’s always possible to find someone to have a random conversation with – someone willing to send you one message once or twice a week..but..It’s almost impossible to find people willing to make more time for you.
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I’m not asking a busy person to make time for me by changing some plans! Absolutely not! I’m here to find someone who wants to talk daily (throughout the day or maybe even night) of one’s own will.Someone looking for the same kind of connection.Strong friendships are based on mutual support. One of the best things you can do for a friend in need, is just to be there for them when they want to talk.I often see posts from people who always say how friendless they are because they don't feel loved or appreciated by their "friends" remember! A true friend - someone who truly likes you or someone who wants to get to know you - will always find time for you.
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I'm not interested in small talk/short messages - I love long and meaningful conversations. It's so easy to find someone who loves abbreviations and questions like "How are you?" How was your day? Or what are you interested in? But so hard/almost impossible to find a person who knows how to keep a conversation going & show others some effort.Building and maintaining friendships takes time and effort.Never allow pursuits or possessions to become bigger priorities than your relations with other people.Close friendships are so important to us because they are so difficult to form + Having friends can help you feel as if you belong to something that brings purpose and connection to your life
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• I do NOT respond to any „Hey,hmu” or „u want to talk?” type of messages (super short messages or messages full of abbreviations – I literally can’t stand abbreviations and acronyms in text messages) ALL messages full of abbreviations will immediately be ignored.I also don't like it when people ignore everything I say in private messages just to focus on a random question or? When they start talking only about themselves and don't ever ask me anything. I love conversations with people referring to everything I say...I want everything I say and do - to be reciprocated
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• No NSFW profiles (checking mental health subreddits NOT included as I'm a huge empath and always try to understand others) - Please! I'm not looking for anyone to flirt with and I'm not looking for a partner either. I always check people's profiles (even comment history) - To avoid guys, trying to get inappropriate pictures from adult women or? flirt with them + I don't want to see you with no clothes on so If you're on Reddit only because you want others to see what's underneath your clothes - I'm not for you! I just simply don't want to see any s e x related activity on your profile If you want to talk to me.
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• If both of us (you and I) are from the same country (I live in a non-English speaking country) - I want to communicate with you in our first language! No - Not because I don't understand English - because as you see - I do. Why then? English is simply overrated and people don't appreciate other languages as much as they should. So.. If we're from the same country and you want to talk only in English (which is quite common on reddit) - Talk to someone else. I just don't want to talk to a person from the same country as mine - in a foreign language as It's just something I don't understand even If all you want is to improve your language skills
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• Please only adult people 18-36 (age range) It doesn't matter to me If you're younger or older than me (as long as you're not underage) So.. don't worry! I just want to have discussions with emotionally mature people :)
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• I don’t respond to messages I don’t find interesting even If they're long - If after receiving and reading your message I don't feel comfortable or think "I wouldn't get along with him/her" I simply do not respond (what I’m suggesting is that I don’t always respond to someone’s first or second message because..sometimes you just know If you’d get along with someone or not- I’d never ignore anyone after days or weeks of daily conversations though) just because I don’t want to do anything forcefully & because I don’t want to lead anyone on. I read all messages but I definitely don't respond to all of them! I want to make it clear because I don't want to be accused of not responding and not reading people's messages! - Some people don't message me back as well and even If It's a bit disappointing I'm ok with that! - as long as there's no emotional bond - Not responding to someone's first or second message Is completely OK! If people think they wouldn't get along with a stranger - is there a reason to start a conversation? I don't think so. I can't stand being ignored after days or weeks of daily conversations and seeing people changing priorities over time.. but that's something different - something I don't want to go through ever again for real. If I'm really interested in someone's message it's impossible to hear from me "I'm too busy" because I know myself and If I had no time for others - I wouldn't be here. I don't want to pretend someone I'm not and always try to find some cheap excuses to avoid others. (unlike most people who don't want to talk to others)
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• Don’t ask me “Can you tell me something about yourself?” If you really want to get to know me - you can ask me questions :) I'm an open book.
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• It would be better If you guys were into emojis - like me - to describe your emotions In text messages. Two emojis - 🙂 and 🙁 are completely enough! I just don't like emotionless conversations.I also don't like it when people say "yeah" or yea"as it sounds dismissively. First impression Is everything to me! I want to see your kindness even in a text message - Emojis are very helpful to express your emotions.I don't want to meet people who say "crying Is a weakness" - It's OK to cry even If you're a guy!
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• I want to talk on reddit first (just to make sure If I'd get along with you) before moving to Discord or some other app
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• I would rather talk to a homebody - not another person who always has something to do as people who are very busy don't even have time for daily conversations
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• If you're another person interested only in "childish conversations" such as "HEYOOO! I'M BORED! Ya like Pizza or cheese? xDDDD 🤣" I'm begging you! Don't send me a message.I'm not a child anymore and such messages don't make me smile or laugh.I'm looking for someone interested In serious discussions - not another person just seeking some entertainment out of boredom . Conversations with sarcastic undertones (even when It comes to some emojis such as 🤣😂) are not for me. Your typing style matters to me! Why? when It comes to online conversations with someone new - It's not always possible to know If someone Is laughing at you.. or with you. Let me tell you something else! Jokes about cancer, disabilities and death are UNACCEPTABLE to me. If you find joy In someone else's misfortune you are not a person I want to know.
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• Time response matters to me a lot! I would never ask anyone to be online all day long and I'm NOT asking any of you for any instant messaging as I'm someone who would rather wait an hour or two to receive a proper response instead of some short and pointless messages but I'm interested only in daily conversations and I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to get a message from you.I don't need unbelievably long messages either! Messages as long as the second paragraph of my post - are completely enough. If you like longer messages? you can send me a longer message, but If you want to send me one word or one sentence as a response to my post - don't expect a reaction from me. I don't want to come across as rude - I just don't want to waste your time
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• I'm strongly AGAINST picking on people you don't even want to chat with - and making fun of them! I can't stand people who criticize others publicly or make fun of them! (only because they disagree with someone they don't even know) There's no place In my life for someone using Reddit, to hurt other people
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• I'm not into foul language and I definitely don't want to talk to people who swear a lot...
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• I want to meet assertive people who know what they want and always stand up for their friends
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• I want to meet someone willing to call me In the future, someone spontaneously sending me pictures of animals or food, et cetera. I want more than just text conversations.. 🌻
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Why can’t you see any of my hobbies listed down below? Because what really matters to me is..who you are (If you’re honest, talkative ,understanding, caring and trustworthy – for example) just simply – It matters to me what you’re like! not what you like.Don’t get me wrong – you can tell me what your hobbies are but from my point of view - people's hobbies are important - If you want to find a gaming buddy or If you want to meet someone to hang out with in real life and..go bowling for example.What most people seem to care about are other people's passions – I don’t. I get along with other people despite having completely different hobbies but I absolutely don’t get along with people way different than me (different expectations and outlook on life – way different sense of humor or personality traits – It’s just an example) It doesn't make ANY DIFFERENCE to me If you're a gamer or? Someone interested in photography! It doesn't make any difference - > as long as you're talkative and kind and If you also want to find someone willing to stay in your life..for good - But If you're into small talk and all you want is to...type and receive super short messages or If you're here only because you're bored and don't know what to do + If you're a very sarcastic person - I'm definitely not for you! I don't get along with overly sarcastic people turning everything into a joke. Friendships should be natural – not forced. I wouldn't get along with people who laugh at everything.. In my opinion most people are way too sarcastic.. It's quite sad... Sarcasm can also be another form of passive-aggressive behavior.
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People who want to be to friends should feel comfortable and have something in common. No - not necessarily a similar taste in music or movies but something else..Most friendships don't fizzle out because of people not having the same hobbies but..because they just simply have different expectations when It comes to something important.I'm not here out of boredom and trust me - I'm not here to meet as many people as possible.I choose quality over quantity.I highly value myself and my time & Sometimes one person but a person who makes you feel comfortable and understood - is more than enough :) We ALL can choose what kind of people we’d like to talk to and maybe even become really good friends with and I? I don’t want anyone to be disappointed.We all have some expectations after all.I know that people don't have to talk as often as possible in order to become friends but I'm interested only in daily conversations. If you really need someone to talk to due to loneliness and If you have time to talk to me daily (throughout the day and maybe even night) I always make time for others.I'm literally always available.I could even stay up all night long only to talk to someone important to me. I’m ready to commit but only If there’s some chemistry between me and someone else.I don’t do anything forcefully.
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If you want to talk to me tell me your story - tell me why you're here, what kind of friend would you like to meet :) Et cetera.Such messages are way more interesting to me than...someone's long list of hobbies. I know! It's unusual on reddit but I don't make friends based on hobbies..I want to meet someone with the same mindset as mine to finally feel understood and get close to someone new. You can share your problems with me - I absolutely don't mind "complaining" as I've been through a lot in my life.What do people usually tell you when you tell them that something's wrong? "Don't complain" or "Life's not over yet - one day you'll be happy" or "There are worse situations than yours" and..obviously "Find a therapist" Life's not a fairytale and sometimes things don't go as planned.Emotions shouldn't be bottled up.I'm sick of people always telling others "everything's gonna be ok" move on " & more..Trust me people - not everyone wants to hear "Just believe in yourself and everything's gonna be ok" Some people take it as reassurance - but others? They would rather hear something different 🙁Imagine being told that things will be okay, only for them to get worse..Do you guys know why telling someone "everything's gonna be ok" Is wrong? Because you can't see the future.
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You can't guarantee others that one day they'll finally be happy + when It comes to social interactions - We're responsible only for ourselves - not others & as you guys know people let us down quite often (sometimes even when there's no reason) so instead of telling people how they should move on, forget everything and be happy or asking them to find a therapist - be there for them! Always be willing to listen to them If you really like them or want to get to know them & don't suggest everyone in a tough situation to find a therapist because even the best therapist won't ever replace a true friend + It's quite normal to be disappointed If people always do something to hurt you. Sharing your hardships with other people in a very similar situation or exactly the same one - is VERY helpful If the other person understands you & wants to start all over by just letting it all out! Feeling emotional support instead of always hearing some "positive quotes" or someone saying "Stop complaining let's talk about something else - Is very important! "Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on. I appreciate sensitive people who always try to understand others. If after hearing a sad story all you want to say is "forget the past and move on" you're not for me. It's important to be a good listener and provide emotional support to others
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Please - If you're a completely different person than the described type of person I'm looking for (If you love abbreviations,If you don't need a stable friendship, If you're sarcastic and quiet) or If you simply disagree with my post - don't force yourself to send me a message.I want my new potential friendship to be natural which is why I want you to contact me only If your needs are the same - I don't want you to pretend someone you're not - only to please me - Pretending to be someone you're not - is the worst.I want to finally be happy again & find someone "always" wanting to talk - sending me random pictures throughout the day - food pictures or pictures of some animals. What is the most important to me? I want to find people who value online friendships as much as they would value real life ones as there's another human being on the other side
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No comments please.Only Private messages and chat requests 🌺
I know It's possible to meet people with exactly the same expectations as mine but It's just not easy because most people are Interested In temporary and entertaining conversations. People like me are just "different" I really want to finally find someone who loves emojis as much as I do.. someone who loves sweet, warm and serious discussions at the same time. Emojis really do - change conversations 😊

Ok so this is a weird cross post from PSX. Another user requested some of the definitive RPGs for the system with a description of why they should play them. I took a bit of time writing this is up... to crickets. Annoying, but thought maybe someome here would be interested in what the system has to offer outside of Squaresoft.
Breath of Fire 3 - Probably the best of Breath of Fire series. A gorgeous 2D adventure with memorable characters and systems. Dragon summons, fishing, dungeon puzzles. If you love it follow it up with Breath of Fire 4 which is also amazing and somewhat darker and mature.
Valkyrie Profile - Also extremely pretty 2D. You play as a Norse Valkyrie tasked with gathering the souls of fallen warriors to fight in the battle of Ragnarok. The story structure has you play through these warriors final moments. A lot of sad, some funny; an amazing game.
Alundra - Another really impressive 2D game. Action RPG and spiritual successor to Landstalker on the Sega Genesis. You have the ability to jump into people's dreams and literally defeat their inner demons. The story revolves around a single town with very fleshed out NPCs. You get to know them individually and so when you do the dream hopping thing you really care whether or not you can help these people (spoiler alert: sometimes you can't). Tear jerker.
Suikoden 2 - incredible story about friends caught in opposing sides of war. Just play it.
Star Ocean 2 - ok super fun super gorgeous sci-fi RPG that plays out a bit different depending on which characters you choose for your party. And choosing some characters locks you out of choosing other characters. So you're probably meant to play it twice for the full story, but it's also like 100 hours long so good luck with that. I love the battle system hectic action characters constantly running all over the field spamming arte attacks and shouting. Immersive crafting systems, and a lot of skits between characters fleshing out stories and relationships.
Tales of Destiny 2 - oh God. Just another amazing game. One of the best of the Tales series. You find an alien girl who has dropped from the world hovering upside above the one you live in. Ensue globe trotting adventure with a lot of heart.
Lunar Eternal Blue - both Eternal Blue and Silver Star Story are solid adventures. I prefer the second one a bit more for the party members. But really either are a lot of fun. Translation has aged a bit poorly but I think they still have a lot of humor between character interactions.
Thousand Arms - weird RPG meets dating sim. When this was current gen there really wasn't anything else like this one. Humor can be crass at times, and the game is pretty misogynistic but I think it's worth an experience. Story is you're a sort of blackmith that has to imbue weapons with the power of love, which you do by dating all the women in your party. The game recognizes that Meis (main character) is sort of sexiest jerk and makes fun of him for it. Lots of humor.
Koudelka - RPG meets survival horror. 18th century period piece that has a psychic Gypsy, pompous Bishop, and cynical atheist exploring a haunted mansion. They do not get along and the dialogue and interpersonal conflicts are pretty entertaining. Voice acting is incredible especially considering how bad other PSOne dubs were. Tactical battles sadly don't provide much challenge.
Dragon Warrior 7 - this is a long one. I'd say it's one of the best of the series, but they're all consistently good. Story is broken up into vignettes, you travel to an island see there's a problem and then travel back in time to solve it. A lot of these mini-stories are well written. Some funny, some sad. Like Lunar these also a lot of good banter and chemistry between the party members.
Rhapsody - this is another weird one. Gameplay sadly sucks. It's just really easy, and the dungeons used a ton of recycled assets. Think budget game. But, and this is a huge but the game is adorable. You play as Cornette, a girl who lost mother but has the ability to speak to puppets. She then recruits these puppets to help her on her quest to rescue the prince she loves from a bumbling band of sexy witches. She also sings. It's like a Disney musical meets JRPG.
Azure Dreams - this is the other Dating Sim RPG on the PSone. But it's a mystery dungeon roguelike. And a monster collector. And town sim. So you scale a tower, collecting and hatching eggs, and dating town girls while investing money in rebuilding the town. Hard, but addictive.
Persona 2 - "modern day" (circa 25 years ago) a crazed maniac named Joker is murdering high school children. There's also a sort of pandemic going around that turns rumors into reality. You are a group of investigators trying to figure out what's going on, also you control demon versions of yourself in battle (personas). Dark. Very dark.
Honorable mentions to Wild Arms (western fantasy RPG), Vandal Hearts (tactical RPG based on the French Revolution with blood fountains squirting out of dead enemies), and Guardians Crusade (cute cozy 3D RPG with a baby dragon).

Phil Aston: Hello and welcome to the Now Spinning Magazine podcast with me, Phil Aston. And in this episode, I’m absolutely delighted to have with me Tony Martin, one of the UK’s most underrated rock vocalists. You’ve had a really varied career, but what we’re going to talk about today specifically is Black Sabbath and the new “Anno Domini” box set. So, welcome, Tony. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tony Martin: Thank you. And thank you for having me on the show. Very cool.
Phil Aston: A bit of context, because I think this is kind of helpful for you. My son is 30 now, but when he was 15, he set up a Facebook group, kind of saying, “One day, please can we have the Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums released?” That was 15 years ago. He was still at school, half his lifetime ago. And I think in the early time when he set this up, he may have reached out to you and you might have said something like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen, Dan.” And here we are, all these years later, and it’s not only happened, but it comes out this Friday. How does that feel to know that these albums are now going to be available again?
Tony Martin: Well, first of all, well done to your son. It took 15 years, but he got it done. To be honest, there’s been a few periods when I didn’t think it was happening. In fact, about a year ago, Tony Iommi’s manager called me and said, “You know what, this is just so complicated. I don’t think we can do this.” So I was resigned to it not happening myself. It’s all to do with band politics, really. There are so many people involved or have their fingers in the pie that they all have to be on board. And there were allegiances changing all over the place, left, right, and center. So in the end, it was getting a bit tiring, but well done to Tony Iommi and BMG. My God, the patience they showed to get this thing together and actually get it out there. Wow. But how does it feel? It feels brilliant, to be honest. I’m very excited. I haven’t actually had these albums in my own hands physically for the past 25 years. I gave all mine away thinking I’d be able to get some more, and I didn’t. They just stopped making them. So to actually physically hold them again is really cool. What a great job they’ve done of it. So I’m thrilled and excited. And I’m helping out now because I’m not in the band, obviously, anymore. So I just offered my help to promote it and they said, “Great, let’s do it.”
Phil Aston: Isn’t it amazing? Because I’ve done quite a few reviews about Black Sabbath box sets and stuff, but this one, within about 12 hours, there’s literally 12,000 views of the review. The love for this period of Black Sabbath is actually huge. It’s grown. It almost feels as if the profile is higher now than it was at the time.
Tony Martin: Yeah, there is a kind of reason for that. Partly people have got over the “it’s the new guy” thing, and also it’s been 25 years since. So now we’re reaching out to a whole other group of people, in addition to those that were already there. But to the outside world, it looks like there was a huge gap, and to me it felt like a huge gap. But actually, the fans were always there. I’ve been waiting myself as well to get this back out there. And it’s just band politics, really. That’s all it is.
Phil Aston: Because you had that period when it was almost as if this part of Sabbath’s history was hidden because of band politics. None of this really happened, which I think probably stirred up more interest and kind of people wanting to find out more.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it could be. It’s an old famous thing, you know, if something ain’t around for a while, people start talking about it. But yeah, it’s a strange thing, the music business. You’re either in fashion or you’re not. But I am just thrilled that they’ve got around it. Just the patience they’ve shown to actually put this together. At one point they were just saying, “We can’t do it.” But I’m really chuffed anyway.
Phil Aston: I imagine there’s been compromises along the way. Lots of fans probably don’t understand how complicated the politics and all the different licenses and everything that goes on over the years, they become more and more entangled. People say, “Where’s Eternal Idol?” But of course, that was a different record label. Different people own it.
Tony Martin: Yeah, absolutely. It’s owned by somebody else. And also Eternal Idol, or “Eternal Idiot,” as we call it, was kind of reissued not that long ago. Really.
Phil Aston: That’s right. With the two CD version, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. So they were kind of thinking, “Well, there’s no real panic because that’s already been done and let’s just move on.” Because that would have wrapped them up in contracts for centuries, I think. I can’t even think that they’ll ever get them to let that go. But they were struggling to get the people involved with these four albums to make up their minds and do stuff. I’ve been all for it all the way along, I have to say. Obviously, because it’s my career, my history. It’s not just the band’s history. It’s ten years of my life that went AWOL. So, yeah, I’ve been up for it all the way along, but some people don’t and it’s taken them a while to get on board.
Phil Aston: I think it’s fantastic. The first one was Headless Cross. You joined one of the biggest rock bands with all that history behind it. You were an established singer with the Alliance. But this was a chance, as you say, with Eternal Idol, you went in and it was already prepared. You sang it, but this one was where you could really put your mark on it, your personality lyrically as well as musically. Can you remember what it was like actually being at the beginning of that? Did you feel comfortable around Iommi and Powell and thinking, “Right, what kind of lyrics am I going to do by Headless Cross?”
Tony Martin: Yeah, I was comfortable by then. Well, kind of. The thing is, with Eternal Idol, if I can just backstep a little bit. The Eternal Idol wasn’t the first call up. The first call up was in 1986 when they were doing the Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes. And that scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. They put me on standby back then, so I’d sort of tentatively had an introduction to Tony Iommi. Then in ’87, they got me in for the audition, and that was the next introduction to Tony Iommi. But because Eternal Idol was already written, that gave me a whole year plus a bit more to find out what this thing was. What the hell was I supposed to do? So just doing Eternal Idol like that was fine by me because I didn’t have to discover anything myself back then. It gave me a chance to get my feet in. So by the time it got to Headless Cross, now I know all the guys, and I kind of know what’s expected of me. I still had to find the “me” that I needed to find. I went around it the only way I could, by focusing on things I was interested in. I couldn’t do the lyrics and melodies that Geezer was writing for Ozzy because that was a generation before me. The stuff that Ronnie was doing was fantastic, but I couldn’t get inside his head. So I had to think about what I was going to do. I had an interest in the old gothic death stuff, like Dracula and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley type writing, and of course, in England, we have Shakespeare. Nobody speaks English like that anymore, that old English text. I thought, “Old English text, gothic death, and Black Sabbath. That might work.” So I put them all together and came up with Headless Cross, which is where I lived. I lived in a village called Headless Cross.
Phil Aston: Yeah, you put that on the map. They weren’t pleased about it. The most recognition I’ve got is my name on a bus stop. And Cozy Powell thought the album needed more death, didn’t he?
Tony Martin: Oh, that’s true. That’s actually true. We were recording “When Death Calls,” and he was in the studio playing, and he suddenly stopped. We went, “You alright?” He went, “Yeah, just remind me, what’s this song called again?” I said, “It’s called When Death Calls.” He said, “I don’t think there’s enough death in it.” And he carried on playing. So, okay, maybe he’s taking the piss, but isn’t it such a great sounding album? As Tony Iommi says, he never left Black Sabbath. So when people criticize him, saying, “You should change the name or whatever,” he never left. So it was still Black Sabbath. The riffs, the guitar sound was reaching new peaks of excellence around this time.
Because when it was just him and Ozzy, for example, it was guitar, that was it. When Geoff Nichols joined during the Dio period, it introduced a few more keyboard things. That allowed Iommi to play solos against those keyboard pads and chords. And then you come along and start sticking 50 tracks of vocal harmonies on it, like in Anno Mundi and stuff like that. It just kept developing. Sabbath isn’t really known for vocal harmonies and keyboards, but underneath that was still Tony Iommi. And it still sounded like Sabbath. We were happy to do that. We just wanted to make Tony happy and do the best for him. It was his band. So we were happy to seek out that Sabbath sound and make sure it did what it said on the tin. A couple of times, like with the Seventh Star thing, he ventured a little bit away from it. Songs like Heart Like a Wheel don’t really make the Black Sabbath sound, but it’s still good stuff. I have great respect for all of the eras that went before. I had to sing all of the songs. So I do have great respect for it. And it’s been an honor, you know, like being part of the whole story. But he was the only one that stuck it out. And we respected him for that. You’re right, they did ask him to change a couple of times. He said, “No, I can’t change now.”
Phil Aston: The next one, if I pronounce this right, it’s Tyr.
Tony Martin: Yeah.
Phil Aston: Because when it came out, me and my friends, actually, because there was no Internet back then and nowhere to go and check it, we did call it Tyr. To be.
Tony Martin: Yeah, Tyr.
Phil Aston: Watch you find in Birmingham. You know what I mean? So it actually rhymes with beer, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It is, yeah. Actually, it’s Tiw, which is Scandinavian for the son of Odin or something.
Phil Aston: Well, this is almost as close, probably, to Sabbath getting into almost a concept album. Isn’t it? This is a collection of songs that in another time and space you probably as a band would have gone out and performed the whole thing.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it wasn’t meant that way, but they were struggling to find a name for the album. We were recording and getting towards the end and the management called us up and said, “We really need a name for this album.” And Cozy said, “I’ve got one. Let’s call it Satanic Verses.” We went, “What, like Salman Rushdie thing?” He said, “Yeah, it would be great publicity.” We said, “Yeah, but we’ll all be dead.” So we did struggle, but they happened across the artwork. We’d done Anno Mundi, we’d done Gates of Valhalla and all that sort of stuff. They went, “What if… Tyr?” It was fine by me. So it took on the Viking sort of theme. By that time, I was thinking, once I’d done Headless Cross and started to have an interest in the Vikings and stuff. As you know, the Vikings haven’t been particularly good for us. They came over and stole all our women and sheep and whatever. But I had an interest in them as well. So I was thinking, every culture, every religion has its dark side. There’s always a devil type in a god type. I thought we could go around the world and I could do this. You could pick up on all sorts of cultures and pick out the dark side of various things. But it was the last kind of… I still did that with various other songs and various other artists. But Tyr was leaning towards that theme.
Phil Aston: It’s an excellent album. Then of course, the strangeness of the politics in Sabbath. Dehumanizer comes along and Dio re-enters the scene. You obviously had an opportunity because every cloud has a silver lining. You can go off and do your solo album at this time. But you did kind of like… It sounds like it was almost a forced relationship, the way that he was and he wasn’t. I mean, how was that period for you? Because you did demo some of the tracks, didn’t you?
Tony Martin: Firstly, it was a shock. I didn’t see that coming at all. Literally just walking out the door to the next writing rehearsals. My managers called up and said, “They don’t want you to go.” From what I recently found out, although I had my suspicions, Tony Iommi said the record label just wasn’t supporting it. They weren’t getting behind us at all. Then they started banding about all different names and stuff, and Ronnie’s name came up. They thought they’d give it a go. He said it was all on and off all the time. After they let me go, it wasn’t too long before Tony called me back and said, “Can you come back?” I said, “No, I can’t. I’m doing my solo album.” More time went by, and he called me back again and said, “Are you sure you can’t come back?” I said, “I’m doing my solo album. I really can’t.” He said, “Do you want to come down and try?” So I did. I went down and tried putting my voice on some of the songs, but it would have meant rewriting everything, and they weren’t going to do that. So I said, “The best thing is if you finish this with Ronnie, get this done and out of the way, then maybe we can talk again later.” So that’s kind of what happened. By that time, I’d done my solo album, which I wanted to get as far away from the Sabbath thing as I could at the time. I went back to doing what the Alliance and some of the bands I’d been with, that middle-of-the-road AOR type stuff. But when they called me back to Sabbath, Polydor dropped my solo album like a brick. They said, “We can’t do this if you’re going to go back with them.” So that got stopped. It’s so confusing. By the time I got back with the guys to Cross Purposes, it didn’t feel that much of a gap for me, because I’ve been talking to them and working with them through the Dehumanizer thing.
Phil Aston: Stylistically, that album, because it was on the IRS label, I know some people have said, “Well, it should be in there.” Stylistically, musically, it’s very different. I mean, you take it out. These four albums in this set, excluding Eternal Idol, they sound like a progression. Dehumanizer sounds like a kind of sidestep. Even the way the riffs are done in the songs, it’s changed. You take the vocalist out, but the music continued. You took you out and it was very different.
Tony Martin: I suppose it does a bit. If I go back and think over it, I guess that’s what it was. It was kind of an interruption into the flow of things. When we were doing Tyr, I thought we were doing really well. I thought we were onto something. Dehumanizer, in that sort of respect, does feel a little bit like an interruption. But there was some good stuff on there. Ronnie’s always been a good singer. I don’t quite know how they feel about it, but it was kind of nothing to do with me. I just let them get on with it.
Phil Aston: After that, Cross Purposes is probably, out of the four albums in this set, my personal favorite. Geezer’s back in the band now, so you’ve got his bubbling bass in there. And again, lyrically, it’s all you. Did you feel any kind of, “Oh, Geezer’s back. Will he want to help out?”
Tony Martin: I did ask. He just said, “No, you can do it.” So I just carried on.
Phil Aston
The reason why I love this album is that it’s varied. A lot of people think of Black Sabbath as the Godfathers of heavy metal, and heavy metal is always heavy metal. But if you think back to albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the seventies, they weren’t all heavy metal. There were all sorts of things on there. There were keyboards and light and shade. This, I felt, connected to that album, because you had light and shade on it. So there were more dynamics in the lyrical delivery and the song delivery, in the way that Iommi is weaving his riffs around the melodies. What are your thoughts looking back on this album now?
Tony Martin: I think you’ve just summed it up. It did sort of shift up a notch. Not only that, but the sound they were getting with Leif Mases producing it, it sort of grew up. It lifted somehow out of what they’d done before. It felt like, “Oh, this sounds good.” The songwriting and the exploring we were doing with the songs and stuff. At the time, Geezer Butler said that’s the best album he’s ever been on. He never said that again, but he said it at the time.
Phil Aston: I can imagine him saying just that.
Tony Martin: But it was good. Having Bobby Rondinelli in the band as well. Technically amazing. Brilliant player. His drums close in, and he plays with his wrists. Very technical. Whereas Cozy’s drums are stretched out far and wide. He’d lean over and hit them. But great to have them both in. What an honor. I mean, it’s Geezer Butler as well.
Phil Aston: When you got to South America, Bill Ward was in for a few gigs, wasn’t he? That must have been quite surreal. Bill Ward and Geezer playing songs like Headless Cross, which they had nothing to do with.
Tony Martin: They had nothing to do with. We were kind of weird because once we’d started to get Geezer and Bill back in, they wanted to start doing more of the older songs. That just makes you look, read between the lines going, “What’s going on? Where’s this going?” Once it’s happened to you, you know it. Then you’re reading between the lines. You start to feel it. Then you go, “Ah, right.” You can feel it. They’re clearing up. I did ask if they were going to do a reunion with Ozzy. Iommi was always denying it. Said, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But I didn’t mind. The reason for that is because I knew what I could do in the future then. I thought, “Well, if they just tell me, that’s fine. Cause then I can plan.” The first time it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do. But I was kind of keyed up for it the next time. But he kept going. They got Bill in. I love Bill. I think he’s brilliant. We did some shows with him. But for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, I mean, I can tell you Iommi loves Bill. He regaled so many stories about when they were out there and how funny it was. I never understood why they never gave him time to get back in it. When you think of Def Leppard, they made a drum kit for a one-armed drummer.
Phil Aston: Yes, very true.
Tony Martin: Surely they can find time to get Bill settled back in. Whatever problems they’ve got. I mean, come on.
Phil Aston: You would think, yeah, very true.
Tony Martin: Get on with it. I thought, “Right, this is going to go south again.” But it didn’t. We carried on with Forbidden, and then Cozy came back after his accident. It was really up and down. Confusing. People in and out. During the time I was in the band, there were eight different lineups.
Phil Aston: It was very much a revolving door, wasn’t it? Before we move on, I just want to ask, because I know a lot of fans ask this. In the booklets in these box sets, there’s an image of Cross Purposes Live. That was a VHS tape and a CD. Is there a reason why that wasn’t included in some way? Is that game politics?
Tony Martin: I did ask about that, and they were just keen to get on with it. They said, “Come on, let’s go, let’s do it.” What they told me was that they’re going to take their time now to see what else they can gather and do an additional thing to this along the way with more of that in it. With the Cross Purposes Live and some other stuff. There’s a track that I recorded with them when Eddie Van Halen came and did Evil Eye.
Phil Aston: Yes, yeah, Evil Eye, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. I used to take the track out. I had it everywhere. Writing sessions, recording sessions, rehearsals. I just happened to be there. I didn’t even know who was coming. Iommi just turned up with Eddie Van Halen. I went, “Holy hell, it’s Eddie Van Halen. What’s he doing here?” He did some rehearsals with us and then disappeared. Never saw him again. But I got the recordings of the rehearsals that we did.
Phil Aston: Oh, wow.
Tony Martin: So I sent them to Tony Iommi. I said, “Use these. Get these on.” He said, “No, no, we can’t.” The reason they said was anything that has the slightest newness about it looks like a new Black Sabbath track or album track. They’re not allowed to release anything new under the Black Sabbath name. So even if it’s historical, they couldn’t allow it. It’s really weird.
Phil Aston: That means there must be lots of live stuff recorded. More bands were recording live stuff from the nineties onwards that you just couldn’t work on because it would go out under the Black Sabbath name.
Tony Martin: Not just live stuff. I’ve got about eight tracks that we never released. Just from the writing sessions and rehearsals and stuff that we used to do. They just can’t get out. They just won’t allow it.
I don’t understand. Well, I kind of understand. When you’re trying to protect your name, your mark, your image, your everything, which is where the band politics comes in, they won’t allow you to do anything that they think. And there’s all kinds of… Everybody from Ozzy to Dio to everybody. They don’t want their thing to be diluted or taken away. I do understand that. There are people involved all along the way that have an objection of some kind or another.
Phil Aston: But I guess, hopefully, this box set’s going to sell out really quickly and will show there’s a demand for this material and for this part of Black Sabbath history. There’s a lot of love for it. A lot of people worked really hard within it, like yourself. They’re great albums, wonderful songs. If there’s other music waiting in the wings, whereas we all get older, thinking through the eyes of the fan, it would go down so well, wouldn’t it? But I am, as you are, very grateful that these four albums have arrived in a box.
Tony Martin: Yes, it’s an important thing for me. It’s an important thing for the band, and it’s a great thing for the fans. I’m thrilled. It’s been an honor to be part of the story. I love the fact that it’s out there now. They did say there is no limit to the box sets. They have sold out on day one.
Phil Aston: I’m not surprised.
Tony Martin: They said the way they do it is they tend to poll the outlets and stuff and say, “How many do you think you can sell?” And they put their numbers in, and they’ve gone way past that. So now they’ve got to go back and produce more. There’s no limit to it. I love what they’ve done. There’s more in the box set than just the albums. Posters, programs, and everything.
Phil Aston: And then Forbidden. I’ll be honest, Tony, when I heard this for the first time back in the day, I didn’t like it. I tried, but I didn’t like it. My son liked it because I think probably because his dad didn’t. But now the remix, it’s as if someone’s released the drums and the guitars. It sounds like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It does. It’s brilliant. I love the fact that they’ve dismantled it and put it back in a way that they couldn’t or didn’t with the other three. Forbidden needed it for all kinds of reasons. It was done under a sort of cloud where a lot of us weren’t really into it very much. But it was also an attempt at trying to give Sabbath a kind of acceptable twist to the youth. It didn’t work.
Phil Aston: The nineties were weird, weren’t they? The nineties were strange for heavy rock.
Tony Martin: The problem was we were fast heading towards great new bands like Nirvana and eventually Green Day and Metallica doing stuff. We were going and they were trying to change the sound to fit in. It didn’t work. We didn’t think it would. But there are people out there that love Forbidden as it is. I said that to Iommi. Last time I saw him, there are people out there that love it. He said, “They’ll probably love this version now.” But shaking the chains, guilty as hell, rusty angels, forbidden. And of course, “Loser Gets It All” is a great track. That wasn’t even on the album originally.
Phil Aston: It’s brilliant.
Tony Martin: Yeah. Strange. I absolutely love it now. It does sound like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds like it should be there in amongst the others. They’ve done a great job. Tony and his engineers have really pulled it together. It’s slightly more guitar and slightly less keyboard. They’ve done Cozy’s drums. Fantastic job on those.
Phil Aston: They’re just unleashed, aren’t they?
Tony Martin: Yes. They haven’t changed anything. They’ve mixed it and given it a new attitude, which is brilliant. They’ve given it more space. It sounds bigger. I just love what they’ve done to it. I’m really proud of it now. I didn’t like it then. There’s still a couple of tracks where I would love to have gone back in and…
Phil Aston: Yeah, you know.
Tony Martin: I thought at the time, because I was that off it at the time, my head just wasn’t quite there. A couple of tracks I thought I could have done better. I did sort of say when they were doing it, “Can I go back in?” They said, “No.”
Phil Aston: I suppose because that might edge towards it being a new recording then.
Tony Martin: Yeah, tricky. I’m not going to tell you which tracks it is, but there were a couple in there that I wasn’t quite happy with. But on the whole, it’s a great job they’ve done.
Phil Aston: Because when you were playing live, there were more songs from your period in Sabbath coming into the set, weren’t there? You were a unique vocalist in many ways for the band. You could cover Ozzy, Dio. You probably could have done Ian Gillan. Anything. You could have the ultimate set list, really, going through every era.
Tony Martin: That was a bit of a mistake. I told them I could sing anything, really. They thought, “What can we give him to sing?” They threw all sorts of stuff at me. I had a shot. Fortunately, I’ve got the kind of voice that can get around most things, and that’s a result of being in so many different kinds of music. I’ve been involved in everything from reggae to rock.
Phil Aston: Who were your key vocal influences growing up? As you say, outside of this Black Sabbath badge, your voice can go in any direction. So who were your influences? Was it blues, soul, rock?
Tony Martin: It kept changing. Everything I listened to, I thought, “That’s good. That’s good.” Each couple of years, something else took my attention. I’d really pour my soul into it. When I started off with reggae, believe it or not, I worked with Musical Youth and Dexys Midnight Runners in the studio. I was a guitarist back then. Then I loved blues. I got into prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Then it shifted to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. That led to Rush and bands like that. Then I had to come down out of that prog rock technical stuff because Sabbath is much more honest and basic and straightforward. To a point. When you’re in the band and you find out how he does it, it’s stunning. I never even gave it a thought. I thought, “It’s got to be easy.” It wasn’t easy at all. Iommi can put seven, eight different riffs into one song, and each one of the riffs could be a song on their own.
Phil Aston: Very true.
Tony Martin: So, wow. You get your head around it. It’s weird. Plus, the time signatures he was throwing at us. There was a 14/4 and a 15/8 or something he was throwing at us. How he gets his head around it, I just don’t know. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a really good job on this.” I said, “Thanks, man.” He said, “I actually don’t know how you sang over some of this stuff.” I said, “Neither do I.”
Phil Aston: Just mad, isn’t it? You could try anything. I might have thought, “That means you might be able to put some of the songs in that Ozzy couldn’t do into the set. Or I can try something that I’ve never been able to do before because Tony says he can do anything.”
Tony Martin: It’s because I showed willing. I told them I’d have a go. And I did have a go. I did put into it. The songs, the writing, the live shows, whatever. I kind of made a rod for my own back in some ways because it was hard flicking between all of the different vocal techniques. But I did my best. It sort of came across okay. The problem is when you try to do stuff like that, it can sound a bit like a tribute act. But we got it nailed, I think. Especially having people like Cozy Powell, Geezer Butler, and all those guys in the band. We were willing to seek out that Sabbath sound, and we were conscious of it. So we were all aiming for the same thing. From outside, it might have looked like a chaotic mess. But on the inside, it all had a focus. We were all willing to give it a go. That’s what I think they saw in me. I knew they liked my voice, but I think that’s what they saw, a willingness to have a go and see if you can make it work. All those different time signatures and riffs that I had to go, looking back, to me, it’s Black Sabbath. Like,
Phil Aston I’m a Deep Purple fan, and every lineup of Deep Purple is still Deep Purple. I know Black Sabbath, there’s lots of politics in the way some of the fans look at it. But I think, which is why they had Heaven and Hell later on instead of Black Sabbath, because of the politics. But listening to these four albums, one after the other, you brought to life Viking mythology and song. More death. Just your passion and the way you projected the lyrics and your phrasing makes these albums unique. An important part of the Sabbath story. Finally, do you feel like this outpouring of love for this lineup is validating everything? Any doubt that might have been back then?
Tony Martin: Yeah, doesn’t it just? The biggest validation is from Tony Iommi himself. It wasn’t regarded that highly until he sat and listened to it without the bickering going around. When I went down a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a great job on this. There’s fantastic songs on here.” I said, “I know.” It’s just that validation that he gives it. The fact that the fans are returning to it. The fact that we’ve got new fans coming to it. Whole new record labels. I think it’s Rhino in America. It’s BMG in the UK, Europe. The record labels are coming back to it and getting behind it. They see something in it. The management sees something in it. So it’s all coming together. Which is a shame because I’m not in the band anymore.
Phil Aston Who knows? Maybe you and Tony will think, “It’d be great if some of this other stuff can come out at some point and we don’t have to wait another 25 years.”
Tony Martin: If he was going to do that, he’d say, “Let’s just write some new stuff.” But from what I’ve been told, Tony’s touring dates are done now. He won’t be going out on the road again. That’s probably out of the question for writing. I did tell him I was interested if he wants to do something. But he’s got so much going on. He’s still busy. Doing stuff. He had that ballet, the Black Sabbath ballet.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that’s true.
Tony Martin: Never saw that coming. No, he’s working on all kinds of stuff. He’s writing new material for something else now.
Phil Aston: So what about you, Tony? Have you got any plans for another solo album?
Tony Martin: I never actually stopped. For the past 25 years, my career took me into the studio and writing for people. My voice appears on 89 albums and projects now. It’s been good for me. I owe everything to Black Sabbath because that’s how the world got to hear my voice. People know what they’re talking about when they talk to me. “Can you write, can you sing on this?” They already know what they’re hearing or expecting. I always try to make it better than what they give me in the first place. A lot of that is me in the studio, and I’m happy, and I still am, happy doing that. But I do tend to choose what I do these days.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Martin: So I’m still doing the odd thing for people now. I did have a solo album a couple of years ago called Thorns.
Phil Aston: Great album.
Tony Martin: Yeah, totally unknown guitarist from America, Scott McClellan. I only met him because he kept badgering me on Facebook. He kept sending me stuff. I was like, “Go away.” He said, “Listen to this. What about this one?” In the end, I listened to it and it was brilliant. So I gave it a go and it turned out really well. But then Covid interrupted that and we couldn’t get out there with it. Some countries were saying, “Yeah, you can come,” and other countries were saying, “No, you can’t.” It all got distracted. I haven’t finished with Thorns because they wanted to do a vinyl for it. They said we had to take some tracks off to get it to fit on the vinyl. I don’t want to take any tracks off.
Phil Aston: Make it a double.
Tony Martin: Yeah, make it a double. Write some more. I wasn’t prepared for that. I’m pacing up, trying to write some new songs. Scott has sent me loads. We’ve got enough tracks for Thorns 2, but I haven’t finished Thorns 1 yet. I’ve got to come back to that. I do want to finish that off and get that done. Then if we can do the next Thorns thing, who knows? We’d like to try and get it out on the road. Getting out on the road for me is so different to the Sabbath thing. The Sabbath machine is huge. They only have to mention it and all the cogs start turning all at the same time all the way around the world. It all starts fitting into place within days, within weeks. On your own, it’s different. I can’t do that. I have to hire other musicians to go out on the road and rehearse the whole thing and start again with a brand new show. It’s a lot harder for me, but I would love to get back out there. My career took me into the studio, so I’ve got more to do. But I just tend to choose now.
Phil Aston: If people want to get Thorns, is it DarkstarRecords.net? Is that the best place?
Tony Martin: No, Battle God. They are the main label. Darkstar were involved and they’re still there, but they’ve had some troubles in the past couple of years. They were on board and I did two versions of it from between the two territories. I liked that. But mostly now, Battle God is the label to grab hold of it. It’s still available and I’m still signing them. People send me the stuff to sign.
Phil Aston: But I haven’t finished yet, so there’s more to come.
Phil Aston: Brilliant. Well, thanks very much, Tony, for all of your time today. Everybody, make sure you go and get a copy on CD or vinyl of this Black Sabbath Tony Martin years box set, “Anno Domini.” It’s absolutely superb.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it is good. I’m just smiling. I think it’s brilliant.
Phil Aston: No, that’s it, isn’t it? Whatever anyone thinks, these albums are available again. People can hear just how awesome this time for Sabbath really was.
Tony Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Phil Aston: All right, take care, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again in the future.
Tony Martin: Thank you. All right, Phil, thanks, mate. Cheers.
Phil Aston: Well, a huge thank you to my guest, Tony Martin. That was fantastic. I’m almost lost for words in knowing what to say to sum up that interview because I know a lot of you are really interested in this box set, “Anno Domini” by Black Sabbath, which is out on CD and vinyl. Just as I thought, it’s sold out already, but there’s going to be another pressing. I was able to ask some of the questions I know some of you have been wanting to know, like why weren’t there extra tracks? Why wasn’t the live Cross Purposes included, etc. So now you know. Some of it is really exciting because it means there might be a companion set with some outtakes or live stuff as well. That’s really exciting.
Tony Martin is a fantastic vocalist, really passionate, really imaginative with his lyrics and his vision of how he writes his music. These four albums are essential. They’re Black Sabbath albums, okay? That’s what they are. They sound like Black Sabbath albums. Wasn’t it interesting that Geezer Butler said Cross Purposes is the best album he’d ever played on? It is a truly remarkable album. But they all are: from Headless Cross, to Tyr (which I can now pronounce correctly), Cross Purposes, and Forbidden, which has been given a new lease of life. Seriously, it is incredible. Just stunning.
Thank you again to Tony Martin for joining me here on the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. Please keep spinning those discs, whether they are vinyl or CD. Check us out on the podcast. We’re on every platform you can think of, from Apple to Spotify to Amazon. Of course, we’re on YouTube. Please subscribe and check out the website at nowspinning.co.uk. Remember, music is the healer and the doctor. So take care and I’ll see you all very, very soon.
Watch the full interview here
Phil Aston Now Spinning Magazine

Good day, kind people,
I'll jump into it, I am going to make a "Lan Party" setup for my nephews during the summer, trying to get them into PC gaming as a first step and then getting them into IT by showing them the things I did to achieve what I am currently trying to do.
Like what the title suggests I want to have the minimum amount of computers for multiple players. (for old pc games, e.g Age of Empires 2 HD edition)
What I can do with my current knowledge is 1. Get one PC each which will cost the most probably, I can get refurbished Dell or hp machines that will run such games fine for 100$ more or less. but let's say 4 people will be playing at any given time, that's 400$ and I end up with e-waste after summer ends and they go back to school and they won't be learning anything awesome.

1. find an old server with as many pcie slots and get old gpus, say 4, and build a gaming server using proxmox but it is very hard to find a motherboard with 4 slots that will be compatible with an ATX case and quiet coolers.
   
2. vgpu unlock, which I miserably failed to do many times, the best I could do with it is split the gpu and get one VM to run only and others won't start, then again I still have to buy thin clients to be able to connect to the VMs ( I am more than willing to do this if it's reliable )
   
3. SRIOV, I don't think this is viable since the only hardware that supports this are intel igpus and I don't think games would be able to run with an igpu sliced into 4.
   
4. Hyper-V, which I have no clue how to do but am willing to learn if it will help my case ( I have seen videos about splitting GPUs on using Hyper-V on Windows 10 and 11 and it is very interesting )
   

I posted here cause I didn't know where else to post this, thought of /VFIO but that is more niche than /sysadmin
ideas anyhow, I would be glad to know if someone does have any different ideas or if I should pursue any of the above-mentioned ideas.

Hi! I'm an ID 124 an i'm currently thinking about which one to pick IF I passed both auditions in the near future
Here is a backround info about me: - i've been singing since i was grade 1 and i'm mostly self taught - became part of a choir at my school for two years (but it didn't benefit me much since it was pandemic and all we did was recording) - been covering kpop songs ever since 7th grade (i'm still consistent till now and got better ever since) - i have a more pop-ish voice since my singing style is heavily influenced by kpop - i'm in a band currently with my shs friends (who also happen to be REALLY into music) - i'm more of a belter and i have a powerful voice on live (altho i haven't really mastered belting) but i can also sing in beabadobee's style (very simple and light) - i've been performing ever since 7th grade (band/solo performance)
I've thought of joining one of the two orgs kasi i want to get better at singing and to also learn more about music sana. I never had any formal or proper guidance about my own voice. I want be a better vocalist for my band and for myself (i have difficulties when it comes to different techniques sometimes) and to have a more in-depth knowledge about music (if possible).
Although I can't seem to make up my mind if ever I passed both. All i'm aiming for is where i can learn and grow as much as possible and where i'm well suited more. Also if you can, please let me know any basic details about these two orgs so that I am aware.

So I(18m) and my ex were together for about 7 months. Everything was Going great, we were each others first love, we were going out on dates and overall just enjoying the relationship. After a couple months I started to get really lazy with the relationship and stopped taking her on dates and getting her flowers, I didn’t compliment her as much and just in generally was a bad boyfriend. I started treating her really poorly and was very immature and stubborn about everything. She brought these things up many times and I ignored her every time and kept doing what I was doing. I stopped listening to her and eventually she broke up with me as expected.
After she broke up with me I fought and fought to be the guy she wanted to be with again and the man that I wasn’t before. I stopped being lazy, I started being more compassionate and caring, accepted Christ and got baptized. We still hung out a lot, did and said things only couples would do and say for 2 months after she broke up with me. It seemed like we might get back together right? We both had many sit down talks about how we were confused on things between each other but it seemed like things would all end up okay again.
Then I went on a school trip and while I was on this trip she went to a different schools prom with some friends and a guy they set her up with. She had told me she didn’t like this guy in any way that he was the opposite of what she wanted and that he was still obsessed with his ex. So naturally I didn’t worry about it. Then when I get back from the trip she calls me and says she wants to go no contact and I don’t argue, if that’s what she wants then that’s okay. A couple weeks go by and she texts me and tells me she misses me. then a couple days go by and she says it again. So at this point I think we are going to get back together but she ends up telling me there was no meaning behind what she said, it was just how she felt in the moment and decided to tell me. So naturally this makes me confused and I say I want more time to think about things between us. I pray everyday and every night for her and about her. I ask God to send me a sign to either Move on, or keep her in my life. I cried many nights over this girl unsure of everything between us, worried I would lose all the memories we made.
2 Months after I wanted to go No contact because she was confusing me after not knowing if she wanted to get back together with me, I find out from my sister that she is now with that same guy from the different schools prom on a trip to Hawaii with his family and that they’ve been talking for who knows how long. Although it hurts, God has finally answered my prayer and I feel a mix of peace and anxiety.

Hello, my name is Eric! As the title suggests I’m looking for a new best friend! I’m 25! I’m from the United States.
I’m a huge gamer, I love video games, so if you do as well, that’s even more a huge plus. We could play some games together! I’m a cat dad to my beautiful baby girl, her name is Sassy! I will always spam pictures of her for you.
I am a huge metal head, so I’ll most likely send you my Spotify playlist if you wanted it! I would love to discover new type of music. I play guitar.
I’m in school right now getting a bachelors for information technology. (I’m a huge nerd). I love building computers, and fixing software/hardware.
The only thing I ask is if you is if you decide to message me, please don’t ghost. I’m tired of people just talking, it’s the worst and kinda hurts. Also, please send more than one worded responses.
I text back pretty quickly so that’s always a plus. I would also send you TikTok’s and memes. It’s definitely a love language for me.
The only thing I ask is you have discord! It’s way better talking over there than here on Reddit!
Can’t wait to hear from you - Please introduce yourself a little when you message me!

Hello, my name is Eric! As the title suggests I’m looking for a new best friend! I’m 25! I’m from the United States.
I’m a huge gamer, I love video games, so if you do as well, that’s even more a huge plus. We could play some games together! I’m a cat dad to my beautiful baby girl, her name is Sassy! I will always spam pictures of her for you.
I am a huge metal head, so I’ll most likely send you my Spotify playlist if you wanted it! I would love to discover new type of music. I play guitar.
I’m in school right now getting a bachelors for information technology. (I’m a huge nerd). I love building computers, and fixing software/hardware.
The only thing I ask is if you is if you decide to message me, please don’t ghost. I’m tired of people just talking, it’s the worst and kinda hurts. Also, please send more than one worded responses.
I text back pretty quickly so that’s always a plus. I would also send you TikTok’s and memes. It’s definitely a love language for me.
The only thing I ask is you have discord! It’s way better talking over there than here on Reddit!
Can’t wait to hear from you - Please introduce yourself a little when you message me!