Hey everyone,
Wanted to share this story to hopefully inspire some of you on this forum to pursue your passion musically.
I’m 36 years old and grew up glued to VH1 and MTV. Some of my fondest memories as a kid were staying up late on New Years Eve watching the top 100 songs of the year countdown.
After discovering The Beatles through my parents vinyl collection, I asked for their CD’s for my 8th birthday. For my 9th birthday, I asked for an electric guitar. I only had that guitar for a couple weeks before my sisters complained and I had to trade it in for an acoustic. It was way too big and after unsuccessfully trying to play it I put it back in its case where it remained for a decade.
About every 5 years I would take it out and attempt to learn. When I got into my Alice In Chains phase senior year of high school I went for lessons but nothing stuck. When Chris Cornell died in 2017 I ordered a new guitar that night. Again, I gave up when I couldn’t form the chords.
In 2021 I started running with a man named Robert “Raven” Kraft in my hometown, Miami Beach. Ravens story requires more than a few paragraphs, but to some it up, this man has run 8 miles on the beach every single day since January 1st 1975. The run started out of heartbreak after he found out a hit song he had written was stolen from him.
Ravens dream is to have a hit. Him and I would discuss music every run (to date I have run with him over 220 times). We would fantasize about me learning guitar and him providing lyrics, starting a real rock and roll band.
In the winter of 2021 my job was on strike so I had a lot of extra downtime. I decided once again to pick up the guitar. This time, inspired my Ravens dedication, I decided I would play 1 hour a day, everyday, for the entire year of 2022.
By June, I was comfortable playing in front of my girlfriend. By October, my best friend was coming over once a week and we started forming songs. By November, we felt the music was good enough and all we were missing was lyrics.
We invited Raven over, who penned his 1701st song in about 10 minutes, our first single, Digging Her Grave.
Another runner joined us from Haiti and plays bass, another runner from Serbia came over and introduced his native Tambura to the band. Finally, a man named Bryan we found on Facebook came over and decided he wanted to produce the album.
In 2023 we became Raven and the Dark Shadows. Our first live performance was a disaster, but we regrouped and practiced more. We found a studio and recorded 10 tracks. Through my connections and Raven’s fame we convinced Dave Abbruzzese (Pearl Jam), Ian Grushka (New Found Glory), Keli Gunnarson (Agent Fresco) and Dave Pastorious (tech 9) to guest on several tracks.
We released our album, An Unkindness, in November of 2023. To celebrate, we had a show at the Wolfsonian with over 150 people attending.
Jack White’s Third Man Pressing is currently producing Blue and Yellow vinyl editions of An Unkindness that should be ready by the summer.
Our song Dracula just reached 30,000 streams. In addition to our music, I produced 4 music videos for our band. A fifth animated one will be out next week. Total views on YouTube are north of 20,000.
At a recent Florida Panthers hockey game, our song, Dead End Road, was played after the Panthers scored a goal. It’s also been used at various Spring Training stadiums around Florida this spring. The Miami Marlins have it on their batting practice playlist. Our upcoming song “Feel Like a Fugitive” is on the Grand Theft Auto 6 soundtrack, and last year we played Stephen King’s 75th birthday bash.
We are currently preparing our second album. All the songs have demos, we just have to find the time to enter the studio and begin the process. We hope to have our second album released by October of 2024.
On January 1, 2025, Raven celebrates his 50th year of the streak. We are hoping for more exposure for the band when this happens.
I hope this inspires you all. In my mid 30s I definitely didn’t expect something like this to happen, but if you really commit to something, dreams can come true.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the project and the sound. I’d also love to get recommendations on what we can do better, as we prepare for album number 2. Check us out on all the streaming platforms
Raven and the Dark Shadows

Chapter 1: The Shadow of a Legend

The planet Galador mourned the loss of one of its greatest heroes, ROM the Spaceknight. His valor and sacrifice had saved countless lives, but his death left a void that seemed impossible to fill. Among those who felt his absence most keenly was his niece, Reva Rann. From a young age, Reva idolized her uncle and aspired to follow in his footsteps as a protector of the galaxy.
Reva was determined to become a Spaceknight, a legendary warrior capable of defending Galador and its people. She possessed not only physical prowess but also a keen intellect, maintaining a GPA of 4.5. Her brilliance was recognized early on, and she was accepted into the Spaceknight Academy. However, despite her academic achievements, her instructors found her lacking in the combat skills and discipline they deemed essential for a Spaceknight. After several attempts to prove herself, Reva was expelled from the Academy.

Chapter 2: The Birth of a New Spaceknight

Undeterred by her expulsion, Reva decided to forge her own path. She delved into her studies, focusing on engineering and advanced technologies. With her exceptional intellect, she designed and constructed a new suit of armor, one far superior to the traditional Spaceknight suits. She named it "Lumina Vortex."
The Lumina Vortex was a marvel of engineering and a testament to Reva's ingenuity. It was equipped with the following advanced capabilities:

1. **Adaptive Armor:** The suit could change its composition to adapt to different types of attacks, whether energy-based, physical, or elemental.
   
2. **Photon Blades:** Energy blades that could cut through nearly any material and be retracted when not in use.
   
3. **Quantum Shielding:** A protective barrier that could deflect projectiles and absorb energy attacks, converting them into power for the suit.
   
4. **Warp Drive:** A built-in teleportation system allowing Reva to travel vast distances instantaneously.
   
5. **AI Integration:** An advanced artificial intelligence named "Orion" that assisted Reva with tactical analysis, combat strategy, and suit management.
   
6. **Stealth Mode:** The ability to become invisible to both visual and electronic detection systems.
   

With Lumina Vortex, Reva was more than a match for any Spaceknight.

Chapter 3: The Dire Wraith Threat

While Reva honed her skills and tested her new suit, a sinister threat was looming. The Dire Wraiths, sworn enemies of the Spaceknights, had not been idle. They had regrouped under a new leader, a being of immense power and cunning. This new adversary was Raxia, niece of Hybrid, a powerful and malevolent Dire Wraith who had been a formidable foe to ROM.
Raxia was a Dire Wraith of exceptional ability, possessing both the shape-shifting prowess of her kind and unique psionic powers inherited from her uncle. She was determined to avenge her uncle's defeats and destroy Galador once and for all. Under her leadership, the Dire Wraiths launched a series of attacks across the galaxy, leaving destruction in their wake.

Chapter 4: The Clash of Legacies

Reva learned of the Dire Wraith threat and knew she had to act. Donning her Lumina Vortex armor, she embarked on a mission to stop Raxia and her forces. Her first encounter with Raxia was brutal. Raxia's psionic powers and combat skills made her a formidable opponent. However, Reva's adaptive armor and Orion's strategic support allowed her to hold her ground.
As their battles continued, Reva began to uncover more about Raxia's plans. The Dire Wraith leader intended to use a cosmic artifact known as the "Starheart" to enhance her powers and make her armies unstoppable. Reva realized that she had to prevent Raxia from obtaining the Starheart at all costs.

Chapter 5: The Final Confrontation

The final showdown took place on the barren moon of Xandar Prime, where the Starheart was hidden. Reva and Raxia faced each other in a titanic battle. The moon's desolate landscape echoed with the sounds of their combat, energy blasts lighting up the dark sky.
Raxia unleashed her full psionic fury, but Reva's Lumina Vortex adapted to every assault. Using her photon blades and warp drive, Reva outmaneuvered Raxia, landing critical blows. In a climactic moment, Reva activated the quantum shielding to absorb a devastating psionic attack, redirecting the energy back at Raxia.
Weakened and defeated, Raxia attempted to flee, but Reva, with the help of Orion, disabled her escape route. Capturing Raxia, Reva secured the Starheart and brought it back to Galador, ensuring it would never fall into the wrong hands.

Epilogue: A New Dawn

Reva returned to Galador a hero. Her bravery and ingenuity had saved the galaxy from a dire threat. Though she had not been accepted by the Spaceknight Academy, she had proven herself as a true Spaceknight in her own right.
The people of Galador celebrated her as "Reva the Resilient," honoring her determination and spirit. Inspired by her example, a new generation of Spaceknights began to emerge, combining traditional combat skills with innovative technologies.
Reva continued her work, always vigilant, ready to defend the galaxy from any threat. In her heart, she carried the legacy of her uncle, ROM, knowing that she had lived up to the promise of a Spaceknight.
And so, the legend of Reva Rann, the niece of ROM, grew, a beacon of hope and resilience in the ever-expanding universe.

Happy Monday, Barkada --

The PSE lost 10 points to 6619 ▼0.1%

Today is MB's 5th birthday!
I'm not really a big celebrations guy, so I'm not sure how to mark the occasion, except to say that I'm thankful for your continued readership and for the community of great people that has grown up around the newsletter as the days turned into weeks, turned into months, and turned into years.
Want to see something crazy? Here's MB's very first episode.
For those who have been there from the beginning, thank you for guiding MB's development through all of my weird experiments over the years. Your comments, support, and willingness to help always leave me speechless.
For those who support MB on Patreon now and in the past, your generosity in paying for something that you receive for free is humbling. Your support has helped me build scripts, host my site, and pay for help.
For those who contribute to MB directly, like Jewel, and to all of my partners, Mike Tan of Vini.com, Ely Paclibar (Your REIT Buddy), and Investagrams, thank you for working with me every morning to stitch this newsletter together. It wouldn't be the same without you.
Today is something of a long episode, but I hope you'll indulge me on MB's birthday because I really hope that you'll like the segment about the team of traders that I've sponsored to enter the Trading Cup 2024 competition, and the review of Alternergy's STAR Investor Day presentation.
Hope you like it!

▌In today's MB:

• PSE suspends PNX, C, and INFRA
• Zobels sell remaining MWC holdings
• TC24: Introducing MB's Trading Cup 2024 team!
  • The Trading Cup competition
  • Meet Matthew, Jenny, and Sef
  • Good luck team!
• Alternergy's first public Q&A
  • Its growth strategy
  • Outlook of renewables market
  • Why it loves wind
  • When dividends?

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Today's sponsor: DoubleDragon

▌Main stories covered:

• [UPDATE] PNX, C, and INFRA suspended for failure to submit Annual Reports... The PSE issued suspensions to three companies [link] prior to the open of trade on Friday morning for failure to submit FY23 Annual Reports. The three companies suspended are Phoenix Petroleum [PNX 4.17 ▼0.2%; 0% avgVol], Chelsea Logistics [C 1.30 ▲4.0%; 0% avgVol], and Philippine Infradev [INFRA 0.53 ▲1.9%; 0% avgVol]. AgriNurture [ANI 0.62 ▲8.8%; 305% avgVol] narrowly avoided suspension by submitting its Annual Report 38 minutes before the PSE’s suspension deadline. The ANI FY23 Annual Report disclosure erroneously reports a net income improvement of 1560% to ₱146 million, instead of a ₱146 million net loss, perhaps this oversight comes from a behind-the-scenes race to submit before the deadline.
  
  • MB: I’m married to an accountant who did the auditing grind for years, so I know that it’s not easy to put these reports together; they’re complex and knock-ons from problems in any of the subsidiaries can cause problems that ripple up the chain and back down. That being said, producing these annual reports is something of a bare-minimum condition of public corporate life. Every management group rides its accounting department and its auditing team into the dirt to get its quarterly and annual reports out on time. I don’t have any inside knowledge into why PNX, C, and INFRA are in this position, but I listen to the silence from these management groups. Good teams communicate with their minority shareholders in times of uncertainty, and a trading suspension is a time of great uncertainty for retail investors.
• [NEWS] **Ayala Corp sells remains of its MWC holdings to Enrique Razon for ₱14.5-B... Ayala Corp [AC 620.00 ▲1.3%; 131% avgVol] [link] disclosed that its subsidiaries, Michigan Holdings and Philwater Holdings, would sell their combined holdings in Manila Water Company [MWC 26.60 ▼1.5%; 123% avgVol] to Trident Water Company Holdings (TWC), which is owned by MWC’s current owner, Enrique Razon. The combined value of the two sales to TWC is ₱14.5 billion. The block of shares coming to TWC through Michigan Holdings was already processed and paid-for (~₱12.9 billion), and the remaining ₱1.6 billion worth of shares from Philwater Holdings will be purchased in installments over the next five years. AC confirmed that it will have no post-transaction common share interest in MWC, and that its voting stake will be “nil”.
  
  • MB: In a weird way, the transfer of ownership and control of MWC from the Zobel Family to the Razon Family is one of the only lasting “achievements” of the Duterte administration. I put “achievements” in quotation marks because it’s not clear how the President’s overreach into the public markets benefitted anyone other than the obvious (MWC’s current owner). As longtime readers of MB will know I have a deep respect for Mr. Razon’s business acumen and operational quality, but I don’t know that MWC customers have necessarily felt any change as a result of this transfer, and I don’t know that minority shareholders have felt any change either. So maybe it was just Mr. Razon in the right place at the right time while Duterte rode the media waves of threatening the Zobels with death and dismemberment? Yeah, it was a weird time.
• [TC24] Introducing MB’s Trading Cup 2024 team!...Merkado Barkada** is sponsoring a team of three traders to compete in Trading Cup 2024 hosted by Investa, where hundreds of traders will be competing for up to ₱640k in total prizes based on their trading performance with ₱300k in virtual currency across the PSE, US markets, and crypto markets. This is a long competition (it runs from April 22 through July 26), so we will follow the members of Team MB throughout the contest to check in on what’s working, what’s not working, and what it’s like on the front-lines of the country’s largest trading tournament. Let’s meet the team!
  
  • “Hi I’m Matthew. I’m a project manager in network engineering in the telecommjnications industry and an agency leader in one of the top global brands in insurance. I have been trading since 2016. Though I like momentum trading, I found more success in position trading because it is less volatile since I can only check my open positions during my free time.” Matthew is 37 and lives in Paranaque. Trading experience: PSE (8 years), US (1 year), CRYPTO (1 year).*
  • “Hi I'm Jennelyn. I'm a Civil Engineer by profession in a government organization. I started trading back in 2020 for a year. I was reckless back then, but I've learned a lot, I'd say. I stopped trading in 2021 to focus on my career and I shifted my trading journey to learning first. Now with the Trading Cup I've found another motivation to push through. I tried day trading, and it was really frustrating and draining, so this time I'm doing swing trading through price action and volume.
  • “My name is Sef. I'm currently in college studying Management. I've been mostly self-taught but over the years I took a lot of learnings from other people. I've tried a lot of strategies but most of the time I'm a swing trader. So, I try to look for strong catalysts and take positions within times of consolidations. My implementation of it during the competition hasn't been perfect, partly due to finals week. But I trust in the process. I've been trading in the PSE for 5 years now. I only started trading the US markets and Crypto, recently. I think my current performance in the competition is reflective of my experience within the three markets. [PSE: +17.4%, CRYPTO: +4.2%, US: -11.5%]. We still have a few months to go and it's still anyone's game. A lot of the top leaderboard right now is primarily driven by 1 or 2 positions that no one saw coming, I think you can guess which stocks I'm referring to.
    • MB: Welcome to the team, Matthew, Jenny, and Sef! My goal in founding Team MB is to give readers a little insight into the thought processes behind the winning and losing trades of each team member. We have a diverse group across age, background, experience, and trading style, so I think we’ll get some interesting perspectives on the markets as the weeks go by before the July 26 finale. The team members will get to keep 100% of any prizes that they win, along with a monthly stipend from Merkado Barkada for all the coffee/snacks needed to keep focus on all three markets simultaneously. Good luck, team!
• [NEWS] Alternergy conducts first public Q&A since IPO... Alternergy [ALTER 0.70 ▲1.4%; 159% avgVol] presented its Q1 results on Wednesday as part of the PSE’s STAR Investor Day event, and MB was there to document its first public Q&A with institutional and retail investors since its IPO over a year ago. For me, the most interesting component of any STAR presentation is the Q&A, because it’s where we get the chance to hear the management team talk outside of the the cold forensics of the financial statements to address the hope, fear, optimism, and pessisim of the average investor.
  
  • On enhancing shareholder value: The ALTER team said that it’s focus is on controlling what it can control, and that as a developer, it does everything that it can to complete projects “within the timeline and committed budget”, increase its pipeline, and build good relationships with stakeholders.
  • On its growth strategy: ALTER said that its “DNA is a developer”, and therefore its “preference is brownfield development” as opposed to acquisitions. (MB note: “Brownfield” means development on land that has been previously used for some other purpose. “Greenfield” would be development on untouched land.) The management team said that it is open to being “opportunistic” with acquisitions, but that its overall focus is on “looking for projects from the ground and building them toward completion.”
  • On outlook of renewables market: “The power industry is really at the point where there is a sustained pressure towards a price increase.” The ALTER team said that there’s a shortage of power supply, and what existing supply there is will come under pressure as power plants age or weather phenomena disrupt operations. ALTER said that it’s strategy is to simply grow its portfolio into this market gap, especially over the next two years.
  • On wind vs solar: The ALTER team was asked whether it was intentional to be “more exposed to wind rather than solar”, and ALTER responded by saying that while both wind and solar are scalable, they “like wind” because it generates more electricity per installed capacity. As the ALTER team put it: “For instance, if we build a 50 MW solar, you’ll only need a 25 MW wind project to match the amount of energy that we will be generating.” ALTER said that wind is also less intensive in terms of land use to generate the same amount of energy, and that its analysis shows that wind projects generate more cash flow than solar projects.
  • On starting to distribute dividends: *One question asked when ALTER would start paying dividends, and the ALTER team responded (after a laugh) that it’s “all about resource allocation”. ALTER said that at this stage, it’s a growth company, and that it would like to use its resources to build a “sizeable portfolio over the medium term” with the goal of “increasing shareholder value.” ALTER said that once it has achieved that goal, “dividend payments would not be far behind.
    • MB:Kudos to any management team that takes questions from the public. It’s not easy to be this communicative and transparent, but as a long-term investor, this kind of insight into the management team’s thinking and analysis of their own data and the market as a whole is important. If your trading style is technical, ALTER’s analysis of wind versus solar isn’t going to matter to you at all, but if your thesis is based on bets in the power generation sector, that response might trigger some research that could be helpful. Overall I’d say that the ALTER team did very well. It was clear that they were nervous, but over time I’m sure the team will become more comfortable with answering the questions and interacting with the investing community in such a person-to-person way. Well done, ALTER!

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First off, feel free to comment about your own experiences. I would love it if anybody can relate. I'm also open to questions, advice, whatever you wanna write. This is gonna be a bit longer, just fyi. Excuse lack of proper chronological order and maybe some wonky sentences, English isn't my first language.
I was parentified.
For context, my mother has three children, I'm the youngest one, then there's my older half-brother (30) and my older half-sister (36). Their father was a violent alcoholic with schizophrenic tendencies (official diagnosis), luckily I never met him. I refer to them as brother and sister. I'm 21 now. I'm the only child of my mom and my dad, my dad has three other kids who are in the same age group as my maternal siblings. Lots of history with divorces and family fights, I'm the center of a complete patchwork family, everybody moved towns a lot, it's all a bit messy and disorganized.
My mother has severe borderline disorder and has massive trauma from several age stages, especially involving men. She was heavily parentified and yet socially cast out by her family herself. I don't remember a time where I didn't act like her father, emotionally. This is made worse by the fact that I'm trans so I was like her bestie before I began socially transitioning in my early teen years. Of course, this was a massive issue for her. She told me she had only ever wanted daughters. Materially she was taking care of things until I was about 11 - walked me to school and took care of the household, used to work, everything.
I remember sitting next to her during a talk/fight she had with my dad while she was sobbing, I can't have been older than 3 or 4. They got divorced around that time. As I grew older, I came to be my mom's sole emotional support person. We had moved to an isolated village with my step-father and she developed a severe agoraphobia for some time. My step-father avoided all emotionality with both her and me and therefore I was now her only friend. I overheard conversations that she shouldn't be having with her child next door and was told about her most severe fears and traumas from a young age. I was lashed out at on a near daily basis and punishment came unexpectedly. It would consist of being screamed at for minutes on end until I would cry and hyperventilate, but she wouldn't stop then.
In spite of her idea of punishment and raising children, she was incredibly attached to me, still is. This would include massive anxiety fits when she didn't know where I was or when I was getting into activities she didn't approve of. One time, when I was about 17, I went to a party in my friend's basement. She knew about this and approved it, knew my friends and where they lived. I didn't have any signal in that basenent so she couldn't reach me. She proceeded to look up my other friends' parents' phone number and call them to contact me. There was nothing she wanted except to know that I had arrived there.
Whereas my other siblings had long left the household years apart from eachother, both with specific and complex fights and banging doors and screaming fits, I was, as the youngest child, turned into a confessional and a therapist. I would mediate fights from a young age. I witnessed physical violence between my brother, my mother and my sister. My brother was the perpetrator for the most part (however, I was neither hurt nor threatened myself). Nobody proceeded to remove me from the situation or stop me from getting involved. From then on, every fight and every drama caused me intense bouts of anxiety and it, to this day, remains to be the only thing that makes me cry and/or lash out.
In a household full of anger, my anger was not tolerated. I was raised with some old-timey sort of black paedagogy (edit: by this i mean some nazi-era remnants type of paedagogy) (I'm German so it is something of a generational curse for some): I was to have unwavering respect for my parents, I was expected to be obedient, "let him cry it out" type stuff. At least when I was a younger child. When I got older, my emotions did not matter either. After stressful situations or fights that I proceeded to witness for most of my life, nobody ever asked me how I felt or explained to me what had actually gone down. I was left alone while not being left alone at all.
If I failed to provide emotional security for my mother or even attempted to call her out, I was made to feel immensely guilty. This could range from her crying/yelling things like "Why is it always me that must suffer" to guilt-tripping texts and blocking my contact for a while to very action-based suicide threats, depending on the situation. Her emotions were forced to be my emotions if I wanted to "stay alive".
At the same time, I still proceeded to excel in school. I felt like dying but nobody, and I tell you, nobody, noticed. I was a teacher's pet, I still had some loose friendships, I visited my dad once a month or more ever since my parents divorced. Nobody realized what I felt. I felt alone and had the worst depressive episode of my life when I was 13. I neglected personal hygiene. I never opened up to my father for many years. To this day I think he doesn't know everything. Especially during covid, him and my ex-stepmother were my safe space. When I first opened up to them, they welcomed me with open arms, my father was very strict and cold when I was young, but he softened, changed, and is everything and more I could ask for in a father. He is among the most positive examples of masculinity and especially of fatherhood that I know in my circles. He sends me postcards several times a month, wants me to visit, hugs me and tells me he loves me and that he's proud, gives me space. The dad who remembers the names of our childhood stuffed animals. Literally. I love him to death. He was also the only parent who engaged in activities with me and would play with me, later on take me to the movies, go to bars and restaurants, go to museums with me etc.
My mother got worse both psychologically and physically, she is chronically ill and needs immense support in a lot of things now. For about a year, my stepfather worked in a town far away and only came home during the weekends. This was during covid. Within a year, I developed a hatred so deep for my mother that I had thoughts that scared me. I took care of our pets and the household, was not allowed to get into any activities after school other than coming home and spent hours after my day listening to her rants, anxieties, fears. I get hateful goosebumps when I remember the way she used to call my name when she wanted me to do something for her. Sometimes she would make me stay awake for longer, knowing that I had to get up at 6am again. It was usually already around 12 at night. She wanted me to walk the dog before SHE went to bed because otherwise it would ruin her otherwise horribly insomniac circadian rhythm. Therefore I was not allowed to go to sleep. At that point she had not worked for more than 6 years and stayed home all the time. My stepfather and I did grocery shopping. She rarely ever leaves the house if she can avoid it. This was during the German version of my GCSE's.
I was denied medical care that could have potentially fixed my posture issues and other orthopedic issues. My mother deemed physiotherapy as inefficient and got mad when I asked her about it again. Money was always an issue. We were evicted once. I was denied certain things and never asked for extra cash because we ran low on money, my stepfather was blamed for smoking and consuming a lot of meat (which indeed is pricy), but my mother never reflected on her online shopping addiction and I'm aware that she is in an ongoing debt. Has been for years now.
Things got a bit better when my stepfather moved back and Covid cleared up somewhat. Regardless, I used pure spite to continue studying hard while they were yelling at eachother from the top of their lungs for hours on end and did the best I could to get the hell out of there. I've had therapy with several years' of breaks for a total of nearly 3 years now, that I partially applied for myself and I'm working on tackling everything. I live in a different city, studying subjects that I love. I get all my shit done, for the most part, I know how to do paperwork and know how all of the chores work. I can regulate myself in terms of sleep and food and cheap thrills. I have a (milder) case of anxiety. I keep meaningful friendships in which I find myself capable of avoiding all the harmful behaviors and attitudes I was taught. I'm learning to stand my ground and take responsibility for my own decisions and actions.
When I establish my boundaries with her now, she turns into some sort of anxious-attached mess. She over-apologizes to me. She puts me on a pedestal and I'm living a life that she is jealous of. She is intensely attached to me and considers me her favorite child and also hasn't properly gotten over my father, over 15 years of them being divorced. She will do anything to support me materially and then tear me down emotionally. Everything I tell her is followed by her mourning the life she doesn't have and never had instead of properly celebrating with me. She gets noticeably sad when I refuse to give her my full attention, she yearns for what she considered a deep and important relationship to me. But it was all just emotional neglect and emotional abuse. Now I sometimes can't help but meet her with the same attitude she gave me.
This is not perfectly chronological and all over the place. I have complicated relationships with my siblings and other relatives, which I don't mourn, but feel guilty about. My father and I are very good with eachother although I need to confront him about some things as well. With my mother I do the bare minimum to avoid conflict, yet without throwing my sense of self out of the window again. She is the only human who can easily cause anxiety attacks in me, no matter where or when. I sometimes wish I was not in contact with her. I have a tendency for smoking too much weed and being just a bit too careless with other drugs (although I rarely do those in comparison), but I also try and regulate this heavily (e.g. not finding a dealer but asking friends every once in a while etcetc). I think this stems from these experiences. Apart from that, I think I'm coping very well.
To everybody: it does get better. It does. Even when your emotions are a rollercoaster sometimes. You will be in a different place, maybe you already are, and you'll escape from these structures. I think the hardest pill for me to swallow is that I create my own reality and that nobody will give me my stolen childhood back. I am an (albeit young) adult now and I must do everything I can to avoid becoming like her. Her life is not a life I want to lead. There's hope and you won't always be in this place.

Hi there, my name is Jeff, (lol meme), I am running a shadow run game I have modified the setting a bit, so now its basically a sci fi futuristic cyberpunk call of cthulu campaign in the shadow run system and world. I am looking for 2 players to add to the group.
For people who care, the setting is basically, standard shadow run world, but 70 years in the future a bit since standard 5th world stuff. Evo has found a relic on mars, and new races are popping up since its discovery. Some companies have obtained samples of this relic (cthulu based) and do to experiments the world is changing, rifts are opening, occasional corrupt energies are plaguing and changing geography and ecology. As shadow runners, you can expect to go 3 different routes for the story: Gangs and CO, (which is more shadow runny, where you fuck over gangs, and corps), Magic (the cthulu feel, learn of a hidden corp called cerberus, which basically does the SCP shit), AI (a bunch of new tech has been popping up, and people are combining the cthulu magic shit with technomancy, creating new artificial intelligence, plz stop this). Each type of mission gives its own rewards. You would start at street scum level with a lot of karma after gen, and i will integrate your backstory with the game system and world pretty heavily. Talk to me about your character concept, because some corps have changed a bit, and new ones exists.
I would prefer a role playing player, and a power gamer for my two submissions but All players welcome, we are super accommodating and chill, but be prepared for some light character hazing, because they have gone through some shit lol. Must be 18+ do entirely to the grimdark theme of the game, sexual content (sorry upfront, there is totally alot of sexual and gorey themes tied to the cult like activities and i dont want you blindsided by that) foul language (its a shadow run game at heart, so...yeah...fk you chummer!) Lastly, i often use celebrities for important or comedic npcs i introduce.
Oh yeah, my players tried to defend Seattle as best they could, but ultimatly it got nuked by Firewatch, so...dont uh...dont have contacts from seattle if you want to use them lmao.
Private Message me! or comment here!
If you have any questions ask em here!

Hi there, my name is Jeff, (lol meme), I am running a shadow run game I have modified the setting a bit, so now its basically a sci fi futuristic cyberpunk call of cthulu campaign in the shadow run system and world. I am looking for 2 players to add to the group.
For people who care, the setting is basically, standard shadow run world, but 70 years in the future a bit since standard 5th world stuff. Evo has found a relic on mars, and new races are popping up since its discovery. Some companies have obtained samples of this relic (cthulu based) and do to experiments the world is changing, rifts are opening, occasional corrupt energies are plaguing and changing geography and ecology. As shadow runners, you can expect to go 3 different routes for the story: Gangs and CO, (which is more shadow runny, where you fuck over gangs, and corps), Magic (the cthulu feel, learn of a hidden corp called cerberus, which basically does the SCP shit), AI (a bunch of new tech has been popping up, and people are combining the cthulu magic shit with technomancy, creating new artificial intelligence, plz stop this). Each type of mission gives its own rewards. You would start at street scum level with a lot of karma after gen, and i will integrate your backstory with the game system and world pretty heavily. Talk to me about your character concept, because some corps have changed a bit, and new ones exists.
I would prefer a role playing player, and a power gamer for my two submissions but All players welcome, we are super accommodating and chill, but be prepared for some light character hazing, because they have gone through some shit lol. Must be 18+ do entirely to the grimdark theme of the game, sexual content (sorry upfront, there is totally alot of sexual and gorey themes tied to the cult like activities and i dont want you blindsided by that) foul language (its a shadow run game at heart, so...yeah...fk you chummer!) Lastly, i often use celebrities for important or comedic npcs i introduce.
Oh yeah, my players tried to defend Seattle as best they could, but ultimately it got nuked by Firewatch, so...dont uh...dont have contacts from seattle if you want to use them lmao.
Private Message me! or comment here!
If you have any questions ask em here!

I have seen people bringing up Kendrick's Pulitzer prize these past couple of weeks. That is fine within itself. But I keep seeing this brought up as a reason why he is better than the drizzler.
A pulitzer is a very big accomplishment, apparently from what everyone has been telling me. But would Kendrick be less or an artist and a person if he never won one these? Would he be lower on your legacy ranking? I won't lie I had to look up what a Pulitzer prize was a few days ago because people kept mentioning it. I knew about the win from years ago, but I took a deeper dive into the award itself.
The award is named after Joseph Pulitzer who was referred to as a yellow journalist. Him and other yellow journalist used sensationalism and catchy headlines with little legitmacy to bring eyes to their newspapers.
These are the same kind of headlines that have harmed black people in the past and present.
GROUP OF UNHINGED BLACK MEN CAUSE COMOTION DURING A PEACEFUL CELEBRATION!!!
Which caused a cycle of violence and hatred in America.
But this post isn't about Joseph Pulitzer. who isn't the cause of yellow journalism. It was here before him, and will be here after. I am not even really trying to call out his character so much as I am just providing context of who this award was named after. I don't want that to be anyones main takeaway from this post. I am aware that awards can have a muddy past, but can work towards improvement in the future. I doubt a black person was even allowed to win a pulitzer when it first award back in 1917. But that is mostly the past. These awards constantly change and evolve year after year,
I am also NOT knocking Kendrick for accepting the award. I just don't think this award or any award should be put on such a grand pedestal.
My main point is, although winning an award is a good feeling for the artist and the fans, these rappers don't do this for the awards. They do it for the love. We shouldn't really put such a huge emphasis on things like this. It always comes second to the art itself. This has probably been said many times before, but it is true.
You notice how Drake was the only one bringing up Grammys and Pulizers in his diss tracks. While Kendrick never mentioned anything of the sort? People may say "Because Kendrick gets those type of things." But I think it is deeper than that. Drake is just a superficial and materialistic type of guy.
People can talk about what all these awards represent and the significance of them all. But we need to take a step back and realize that at the end of the day, these awarda are just a piece of paper or metal that was given to these guys by a nameless voting commitee who we know nothing about.
These awards don't really speak for the culture, and more importantly, the artists recieving them.
Kendrick was a goat before the Pulitzer and is a goat after the pulitzer. Take away all his grammys, plaques, and other awards, and he is still an ultra skilled, and technical rapper who makes music that takes people on an unique and introspective experience. He is a thinking man's rapper.
THE ART COMES FIRST. TAKE AWAY ALL THE AWARDS AND TITLES AND WE WILL STILL HAVE THE ART.
Edit: This post is not meant to be anti awards. I watch the grammys and the oscars every year ngl. It is mostly to awknowledge, hey the award is cool but that is not what we should be bringing up about why the art is great. If TPAB won 0 grammys, it would still be one of the greatest hip-hop albums in my eyes.

Picture this: you’re an A-list celebrity at your peak. Crowds chant your name. Paparazzi swarm you in the streets. You are perfection, you are desired, you are infallible. You’re also expecting twins: a boy and a girl. Knowing that they will never need to apply for a job, are un-bullyable given your status, and your inflated sense of worth and importance makes you feel like normal names are below you - what do you name your children?
I’d go with Truce for the girl and Feldspar for the boy. Or Pangea and Cobalt.

(Hi! This is the first time I've posted a long text about the society of keys. I hope you like it. It about Edward and Erin. I know long texts don't usually work here. But I made this from the heart and I wanted to share it with you. Without further ado, let's get started!)
Out of Continuity: Lair of the Society of Keys
The basement/clinic was completely silent, only disturbed by the occasional beeping of one of the Medical Teams. Suddenly the 5 members of the society entered, all carrying Erin, who was in a very weak state of health, black marks came out of her mouth, and spread across her skin.
Elizabeth: Leave her on the bed, carefully…
They gently placed her on her bed, while they hooked her up to monitors to view her vital signs. Which were at worryingly low levels. The 5 members left all their keys on top of Edward's desk. Next to a small black device similar to a wristwatch.
Eechiro: Damn, what did they inject herwith?
Eric: No idea, that guy came out of nowhere, although he left this syringe behind.
Elizabeth: We have more important issues right now. Her signs are stable but they are declining at a worrying speed, we have to find a way to cure her...
Edward moves away a little to lean against one of the laboratory counters. His mind was still racing, Erin's voice began to hit his psyche. Repeating her name over and over again. Until his mind decided to take him to THAT night. He could feel like Erin was hugging him...
"Please…"
His pupils shrank, turning into small black dots. His arms had the reflex of trying to hug the air in front of him. The only thing that could bring him back to reality was Eechiro's clicking noises. Which was in front of him, trying to get his attention, while he repeated his name.
“Edward! Edward! Richter!” Eechiro gave up and returned to the rest of the society, who were surrounding Erin “Nothing! "He's like in Shock, I can't get him out of there!"
Edelgard: “Leave it, we have to do something soon! If we don't find a way to cure her, she's going to die."
Those last words gave Edward the boost he needed, without saying a single word. He approached his desk and took 5 keys next to the strange clock. After this, he began to leave the basement. While he put the watch on his wrist.
“We have to make a plan to get into his base, Edward, do you have any ideas…?” Eric noticed that Edward was leaving the basement, and after a quick glance he also saw that he had taken the keys. “Get him, it’s trying to leave the house!”
The four members of the society followed Edward who walked determinedly towards the door to leave the society base. Just a few meters away, Elizabeth and Eechiro began to pull his arms. While Edelgard held him by the back of the neck.
Eechiro: “You're not leaving!”
Edward quickly crouched and performed a roundhouse kick to knock down the three who were trying to pin him down. Eric placed himself between Edward and the door to prevent him from leaving.
Eric: “Edward, No! We need a plan!" He said as he held on to the door frame to prevent Edward from pushing him.
“ERIC, I KNOW YOU HAVE GOOD INTENTION. BUT I ASK YOU TO GET OUT OF THE WAY” Edward said as he looked at the floor. Eric remained immovable in place.
“I can't do that Edward, I know you're angry. But going like this is…” Eric didn't finish his sentence, because Edward put his hand on his shoulder, after which he made eye contact with him. Eric looked closely into the eyes of forensic. It wasn't the look of someone angry, but of someone scared and determined. For the first time, he could see a look on Edward that wasn't one of indifference. But of absolute concern. After which, the young diver take his decision, getting out of the way. Edward just nodded his head and walked out the door. When Elizabeth, Edelgard and Eechiro stood up they went directly to face Eric.
Eechiro: “What did you do Eric? You went crazy. He ran away and take the keys!”
Elizabeth: “He didn't take everything… he lefts Erin's key. Although Eechiro is right, what were you thinking? Did you let him go alone to face an army? What were you thinking?”
Eric: “You didn't see it… that look was relentless. I'm afraid of what will happen..."
Edelgard: “If you were afraid, why did you let him go?”
Eric: “I'm not afraid for Edward... I'm afraid for whoever decides to stand in his way. Although that is secondary now, We have to make sure we keep her alive.... Come on, let's get moving!”
Universe 18-24-53: Lair of the Steelwater.
Edward arrived at the outskirts of a bar, from outside he could see multiple men sitting at the tables. Most of them had baseball bats or brass knuckles. At the centre table there were four men playing poker. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided to go inside.
“Look and cry gentlemen, I have Full House,” said a man as he slammed the table hard. Another responded to him, as he revealed his cards, “Very interesting, but…”
"What!? An R-Royal straight!? “That's impossible, you bastard,” said the first, while he looked at his partner's letters in astonishment. The lucky gangster was about to say something, until suddenly, Edward grabbed his sleeve, causing multiple hidden cards to fall out.
The gangster was surprised by the presence of Edward standing next to them. "Where the hell did it come from?" Wait… you cheated!?” The gangster replied, now addressing his partner.
“O-Of course not… and also who the hell is this blue-haired?” Said the other man who was still sitting. A dead silence was maintained until multiple windows were heard breaking. When Edward turned around he saw a man at another table, with the bat in his hand. He had dropped his beer on the floor in shock. “Idiots! That blue-haired is one of those multiverse travellers! The Forensic Killer! You let the enemy in!
"What!?" The Full House man lunged at Edward, who simply dodged him. Placing his leg to cause the gangster to fall to the ground, the man's forehead collided with one of the wooden chairs. The other men launched themselves at Edward, who limited himself to Dodge, and responded to them with the furniture of the place. He attacked them with chairs, plates. Even with the same poker cards. “Why don't you die!?” It was probably the phrase that was repeated the most in that fight.
When there were only two men left, they both decided to distance themselves from Edward, and tried to go to the back of the bar. Quickly, Edward took out a pair of sharp metal scissors from his pocket and threw them hard, aiming for the head of one of the men. Which remained nailed to the wall next to the door, while his companion managed to escape. Edward followed at a fast pace, but without running, maintaining unwavering composure. Which only generated more fear in the man who ran.
Edward followed the man to some underground warehouses. The contrast with the bar was clear, while the first looked like a stereotypical 80s movie, this was more like an apocalypse bunker. The man continued running down the long hallway, until he reached a huge room at the end. Due to the distance he had managed to get from the coroner. He had time to activate the Security system. Edward saw three huge metal doors close between him and the man. At this, Edward said nothing. He just approached and tapped the metal plate in front of him, after which he took out of his pocket one of the keys that he had taken from the base. It had a drawing of a dragon. And small burn marks. Edward took the key and inserted it into a small slot in the device on his wrist, suddenly a flash of orange light invaded the tunnel…
On the other side of the door the Gangster is celebrating — “Let's see how you get through that, Four Eyes!” Until he felt 2 presence behind him “What the hell are you doing?” The man turned around to see his boss, a man in a beige suit, with his hair combed back with gel. Next to him was a woman with red hair and green eyes. She dressed in a trench coat, shirt and black pants.
"Boss! Miss Octavia! “He is the coroner, he is here, and he has eliminated everyone in the bar!” The man said as his legs trembled. The boss hardly flinched. While the woman only managed to murmur a phrase, “I was already wondering when we would see each other again, Edward.”
The man guided his boss and the redhead to a screen, which showed the security camera in the hallway. “You don't need to worry anyway, there are three metal doors between him and us. Look… there is no way he can pass- WHAT?”
The three of them were stunned. The metal on the doors was melting. Edward, dressed in a black and orange kimono, shooting a burst of fire. Making a circle to melt the door. The boss rushed towards his minion, holding him by the shoulders. “You told me he was the coroner, not the arsonist!”
“He's the coroner, I don't have the slightest idea how he's throwing fire.” The boss released his minion and approached the redhead. “Listen to me, Octavia. You told me that if he eliminated one of those crazy people, The Guardians would fulfil a wish of mine. But you didn't tell me that they would come to try to destroy me.” The woman broke her silence and said, “Calm down, Tragliatore. Our pact still stands. The guardians will fulfil your greatest wish. You have my word as a Detective” The redhead said as she put her hand on his shoulder.
"Boss! He already went through 2 of the doors! Look” The henchman shouted at his boss, while he pointed at the door that was turning increasingly reddish. The boss removed Octavia's hand from his shoulder. “Quickly, you lazy bunch, everyone pointing at the door.” all the soldiers pointed directly towards the door. “I want anyone who walks through that door with more holes than a damn sieve.”
Multiple men stood at a safe distance from the melting door. Everyone was waiting for what was about to happen. The sound of the flame on the other side of the door invaded the environment, until suddenly... Brain. Causing chills to almost all the people present there. A yellow glow could be seen from under the door that was melting…
The silence was interrupted by the sudden ejection of the door, which was thrown directly towards the soldiers in front. A large amount of smoke came out of the hole that was left. And a couple of yellow dots lit up. Edward ran out of the smoke, wearing a black trench coat, the inside of which shone bright yellow. In his face there was a pair of Goggles, also yellow, which emitted an intense light.
"There is! “Shoot him!” He shouted loudly, as Octavia dragged him towards a door to get him away from the shooting. The henchmen fired volleys of bullets at Edward, who was blocking the shots with Edelgard's trench coat.
Edward tackled one of the men and took cover behind some wooden boxes. He took the gun from the anklet, knocked out the guard next to him and took his gun from him. To start responding to shots. Taking advantage of the lens aiming system. After several minutes, Edward realized that he needed to increase speed... He removed the key that was inserted into the device. Which had the symbol of a Sniper sight, I inserted another one that had the symbol of skates.
After this, he threw his pistol into the air, while a green light enveloped him. The gangsters were perplexed, watching as the gun transformed into a UZI with neon green markings. They were even more perplexed, when Edward jumped out from behind the box... Dressed in a black one-piece suit, with silver lines. In large white letters it was written "Ritcher" and a number 3 in large.
Edward caught the UZI out of the air, and it clicked on his heels. The white soles began to glow, and he levitated a few centimetres from the floor. The next thing the gangsters saw was this blue-haired boy attacking them while he fired with the UZI.
“Quickly, Tragliatore. Over here!” She told Octavia to the mafia leader, As she dragged him through one of the doors, and she kept crouched down so as not to be seen.
Edward continued to dodge bullets while he in turn returned fire. He quickly positioned himself in the centre of the room, and began to spin on its axis at high speed, while he continued shooting with the UZI and one of the gangsters' weapons. Generating a storm of bullets, which filled the room. When he stopped, Edward realized that he had made holes in all the walls, covers and enemies in the place. He began to walk towards the hallway that Tragliatore left down. With all the calm in the world, he removed the key from the device, and placed a different one with the symbol of an Oxygen mask and a Sickle.
“Come in! Come in! Quick!" Octavia shouted at Tragliatore, while holding the door of a small laboratory, which had a small window with a curtain, inside was another of the henchmen, dressed in a white coat. After entering, Octavia's attention was quickly caught by a shelf with some books. Tragliatore watched as his protector began to search the bookshelf. “What's happening, boss? I heard a lot of gunshots and-” Quickly, the scientist's words were interrupted by the screams of their leader. “That doesn't matter now! We are under attack, scan the bunker. I want to see how many of my men are still alive!” The henchman typed something on a nearby computer. While Tragliatore was still confused by what Octavia was doing. He was about to ask her, when his employee's surprised moan distracted him. “Bo-boss, there are only four living beings left in the Building…” Tragliatore raised his hands to his face, passing them all over his face, while he let out a long sigh through his mouth.
“Okay, okay, it's manageable, it's manageable… Octavia, we need a plan, can you think of it… Octavia!?” The gangster was surprised when he saw the red-haired girl, with a book from which a white glow came out. And a white circle surrounded her. “I'm sorry, boy, but our deal is going to have to end here…” When Tragliatore tried to stop her, he realized that he couldn't get through the circle. “This was not what was agreed upon, you said that The Guardians were going to fulfil my wish…” Octavia tore the pages from the book, and held them up. “I told you that they were going to grant your wish…” He released her leaves, which began to orbit around her. “If you survived…” Tragliatore was about to reply, until his minion shouted at him, with a tone of perennial terror in his voice. "MISTER! “She's coming down the hallway, she's coming this way.” Tragliatore's shock was evident in his eyes. And when he turned around to look to Octavia for a solution, he saw that she had disappeared, and the circle on the floor was on fire.
The scientist quickly approached Tragliatore, holding him by the shoulders, his body aligned with the door. On the other side of which footsteps could be heard in the distance. “What do we do now, boss? There are only the two of us left, I don't want to die! My notes are still on the table, if he finds out that I designed that poison, I don't know what he'll do to me!” Tragliatore quickly slapped the soldier away from him. “We're not going to give up, listen this is what we're going to-”
Before Tragliatore could finish the sentence, a metal sickle came flying through the door window. The sickle hit the scientist directly and stuck into the wall. Blood began to drip from the inert body. Tragliatore recoiled in shock, blood had splattered on his face.
The bottom of the Sickle opened and a small stream of water came out, which floated forming a hand. Which I grab the sickle and take it out of the wall. Causing the man to fall to the floor, Tragliatore watched in shock as his hand stopped in front of the door and slammed hard against the handle. Causing the door to open.
Edward entered through the door, dressed in a black jacket with grey sleeves, accompanied by black neoprene pants. The footsteps of his boots broke the silence of the room like thunder in the night. His face was covered by a hood, accompanied by a black oxygen mask. Tragliatore tried to pull the gun from him, but was quickly restrained by Edward. Which he held against the wall.
“What the fuck do you want? If you're going to kill me, do it now! Tragliatore tried to say with the most threatening tone he could. Edward remained silent, taking one of his scissors out of his pocket, beginning to run it across the neck of his mafia leader. "Wait! Wait! You want money? “I can give you money.” At the offer, Edward stuck the scissors into Tragliatore's leg. Causing blood to flow out, along with a gasp of pain “Uh… Okay, Okay, no money. What do you want?"
Edward took out the syringe with a black liquid from his pocket. And he shook it in front of him. "The poison? Do you want to know how the poison is made? Why do you think I would tell you?” Tragliatore said, finishing his sentence by spitting at Edward. Which was Stoic, took another scissors from his pocket, and stuck it in Tragliatore's hand. Leaving it nailed to the wall. The scream of pain was even louder. “Ugh! In the table! In the notebook on the table!” Edward alone tragliatore, letting the scissors support him. While he went towards what he had come for. He took the leather-bound notebook, and opened it to the page that was marked with a red ribbon. On the same page, the process with which the poison had been made was detailed.
After seeing this, Edward began to walk towards the exit door. A white glow enveloped him and his clothes returned to his usual trench coat. Tragliatore couldn't contain his frustration and shouted at Edward, “Really? You entered my base, you killed all my staff, that's why? All this for that Bea-” Before he could finish the sentence, Edward turned on his heel. Throwing a pair of scissors directly at Tragliatore's forehead. The scissors remained stuck in the wall. Leaving a hole in Tragliatore's face. “DON'T INSULT HER AGAIN, NEVER!" After this, Edward adjusts his bangs, and begins to walk out of the underground base. Willing to achieve it.
Out of Continuity: Lair of the Key Society / One week later…
Erin woke up on the morgue gurney, her eyes slowly opening as her senses began to return. She looked around her, recognizing the medical equipment and monitors that were still beeping softly. She sat up on the bed with some effort, and her gaze fell on Edward, who was sitting next to her.
Edward was completely disheveled, with deep circles under his eyes that marked his tired face. He tapped his foot on the floor at high speed, clearly nervous. Next to him, the table was littered with empty coffee cups and a stopwatch
"Edward?" Erin asked in a weak voice. Edward looked up quickly, his eyes filled with a mix of surprise and relief. Realizing that he hadn't imagined the sound of Erin's voice, he jumped up and hugged her with all of her strength.
"Are you OK!" he exclaimed, her words filled with her emotion. Edward moved away from her a little, holding Erin's face with her hands under her cheeks.
"Yeah...I'm fine," Erin responded, still a little disoriented. She noticed the black marks under Edward's eyes and frowned in concern. "My God...Edward, are your eyes okay?"
Edward couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "You wake up from a coma, and the first thing you ask me is if I'm okay?" After that, Edward hugged her again, resting her jaw on top of her head. Erin just enjoyed the hug, feeling the warmth and security that she gave her.
Suddenly, she felt drops falling on her head. Erin looked up and saw the tears falling from Edward's eyes. "Edward? What's wrong?" she asked in a soft voice.
Edward grabbed her chin again and brought her face closer to his, causing Erin to blush. "What's going on?" Edward moved forward, planting a kiss on Erin's lips. The shock to Erin's mind was brutal, but she soon began to enjoy it. After several minutes, Edward broke the kiss and looked at Erin with a look he'd never had before. "That's what happens," Edward said softly, hugging her again. "I Love you"

Reason why I'm changing the title a bit is the fact that there already exists another Pokemon AU (in which the characters are trainers), so I'm changing mine's title for the sake of differentiation.
Okay, so keep in mind, this is all just for fun and may or may not be altered later if I find out it needs reworks for the sake of continuity. (This is why I won't add pictures in the same post bcuz reddit only lets me edit text of the posts without pictures, if you want, I can add pictures such as sketches or little doodles of the AU in the future posts.)
I plan to publish this in short parts, if you would rather have the entire thing published when it's done instead, let me know in the comments!
So, here it is; Pokefied AU story:
PART 1
...
Leena is a pokemon trainer and at firsth she had three pokemon in her team. They were a Nerdbird nicknamed Elijah, a Meolya nicknamed Elisa, and a Zvezdragon nicknamed Anthony and Diplomator (one name for each head).
It all started when she got Elijah. He was like her starter pokemon. He used to belong to a student friend of hers that, once they graduated, realized that they can no longer take care of Elijah the Nerdbird and entrusted him to her.
Shortly after, Leena decided to get Elijah some company so she bought an egg from the Shop and hatched it, which is how she got a Meolya that she nicknamed Elisa. That's why Elijah and Elisa had a sibling-like relationship with Elijah acting as a more experienced and older brother. He vas wery protective of Elisa and always went firsth into every battle.
Leena was very caring of those two, which is why later, when she decided to try and earn some gym badges, she had a hard time introducing other pokemon into the team because they rarley got along with Elijah and Elisa and were sometimes even mean to them. This would become a problem because the other pokemon she caught were often stronger. She wasn't shure why this kept happening. One theory she had is that it's because of the fact that Elijah and Elisa didn't seem to be able to evolve. Leena never really knew what Nerdbird and Meolya are supposted to evolve into, she just knew that they can. However, she didn't want to force them to evolve if they weren't ready, so she decided to not bother them with that and let them take things at their own pace. Weirdest thing about all that is that it seemed that Elijah knew he will have to evolve one day, but it was like he himself also didn't know into what.
After some time and a certain amount of gym badges, Leena managed to catch quite a powerful dragon type pokemon Zvezdragon. She was afraid that she will need to put him into the PC box after some time as well, but was suprised to see how well he got along with the firsth two (especially Elijah). It turns out that Zvezdragon is a kind pokemon that is eager to protect others from opponents that are unjustifiably stronger. He was the team's strongest pokemon and gave them a powerboost they needed.
So he was added to the team as well, which was celebrated by Leena nicknaming each of his heads with a name fitting to their personality: Diplomator and Anthony.
All of them worked so great together, Leena never really needed to add more pokemon to the team.
Untill the accident, of course.
...

I thought it might be useful to lay out some of the more credible sounding comments and discussion I've seen around "the end" of Giuseppe's career and his disappearance. Nothing here is "officially verified", but I think there's a fair bit of truth in a lot of the information here, and might help point anyone who's interested in the right direction to a better understanding of his story. I've included the ones that make more sense to me/ reflect my own knowledge of the situation.
Giuseppe was living around Canandaigua, NY towards the end, staying with Mary's parents in her childhood home for a period, after they both had left Austin for unknown reasons. I would imagine the reasons would have likely been mental health and/ or money related for both of them (he was approximately 36 years old, at this point). Mary was still shipping movies out for a while around this time - the last order I placed on the website myself was November of 2014 and ended up emailing back a couple weeks later, because she had never sent me any information about receiving the order / shipping it out, in contrast to all earlier orders I had placed. She replied pretty quick though, and told me she had shipped it out earlier - it arrived about a week after. The return address was her parent's place in upper state NY.
Giuseppe's output got increasingly erratic and bizarre over the next couple years, and I wasn't really sure if half the items he was selling there were even real... they would have completely nonsensical descriptions, often like a free association / shitty "beat poetry" kind of thing, usually in all caps, featuring lots of bizarre and offensive language (racial slurs, AIDS references, etc), and the products listed were often things like a "3 minute DVD" for 20 dollars, so I was pretty skeptical / really didn't have much interest. He'd announce a ridiculous amount of new material, I'm talking like 5 new movies and 5 albums every week... The last order I made was for a few of the Austin films and I really didn't enjoy them, and more or less lost interest in any future projects at this point. I would still check periodically just to see what he was posting to the site, just out of curiosity / because a lot of it was really out there. He used to have audio samples for his "albums", and he almost exclusively was posting CDs of him ranting (with a ton of very weird throat clearing and coughing, it almost seemed like a Tourettes thing). His site went down somewhere between March 23, 2017 and July 3, 2017 according to Internet Archive. I can't remember exactly when he stopped adding new items, but it was probably sometime in early 2017.
He was clearly living in and around Canandaigua for a while, for at least 2-3 years, maybe even longer...
February 2017 - a twitter account called "HELP GIUSEPPE" was created and made three posts:

@ thecampaignbook Shia, G.A just came into my local bar needing help. he was stressin bad. hes in canandaigua NY and just stormed out of here
@ AdamRifkin G.A just stormed into my local bar, made it half way through the set up of this account and stormed out. needing you it seems.
@ EdwardNorton Giuseppe Andrews just came into my local bar very alarmed/needing a friend and help.

July 5, 2020 - a YouTube video entitled "What Happened to Giuseppe Andrews? A Short Investigation" is posted, some of the comments that were posted include:

(approx: 2021) I live in a small town called Carlin.. it’s literally 24 miles from Elko Nevada.. back in may of 2019 I was working at a small casino.. Giuseppe would often frequent the casino.. I worked the graveyard shift so it was mostly quiet.. he was polite and even remembered my name and would always ask me how I was.. I was able to get him to take a selfie with him and he even drew some artwork for me.. he told me that I could sell the artwork if I wanted to and fetch a decent price for it.. my husband and I were in the process of buying our first house and I told him no I would frame it and it would be proudly displayed.. he almost started tearing up..I’d happily upload the photo if YouTube would let me..
The same commenter also mentioned, responding to a comment about Detroit Rock City: yeah that was a good movie.. it’s really sad how his life played out.. he told me some sad tales of what he went through

> In early 2018 a man rang my doorbell in Canandaigua, NY. He was disheveled and seemed out of it***. He started yelling at me “I am Giuseppe Andrews, a Hollywood actor. I need you to call the police. “ I was startled and a little afraid but I told him to wait outside and I went in and called 911. He waited on my lawn and the police arrived in about 5 minutes. He spoke to the police in the car and then walked away. I don’t really live within walking distance of anywhere so not sure where he was going. I tried to obtain info from the police about what was going on but was not told anything. Has remained a mystery all these years later and I think people ( other than my neighbors who witnessed it) don’t believe me when I tell the story. Strange but 100% true.***
Some other interesting comments from various accounts, talking about the last stuff he was posting publicly:
> On his YouTube before he start d doing 13 albums in 2 weeks, his gf released a video a bunch of videos that was 4 or 5 hours long of him ranting on a couch with a guy. I think she was documenting it. I wish I would of downloaded it.
> And the next day it was all gone the footage, I have signed copys of DVDs and posters and shit he sent me in the mail.

(A reply from another commenter) - I remember he went on a long rant about various people in Hollywood and whatnot. Someone mentioned him having schizophrenia/paranoia, and while I'm in no way a psychologist or medical professional, it did seem like things were getting progressively more bizarre and unhinged. Given how creative and abstract he was when he initially started with his film making and music, I think it masked what was actually going on ( whether it was drug use, the onset of some sort of mental illness, or a mix of the two ). Earlier on he was still eccentric but seemed more lucid and driven with what he was doing.

> From what I've gathered (also a fan from DRC and Cabin Fever) his mother committed him to an institution and when released, he went to live with his mother. The twitter chick claims to be his fiancé now and he's no longer with Mary. But who knows.

It would turn out that Andrews also suffers from some very severe issues. Having chatted with his mother Giuseppegirl informed me that he has recently been placed in a mental health facility and has begun a 6 month stint in there where he has no access to the internet or anyone other than family members. He had a break up with his wife Mary Beth, who appears in a lot of his films, so it's possible that this is what put him over the edge. I've talked with Adam Rifkin who says he has some of Giuseppe's rarer films, but hasn't talked with the man for a few years now. That's as far as I have gotten in the rabbit hole.

A bigger YouTube channel made a video about Giuseppe's disappearance, titled "What Happened to Giuseppe Andrews? Internet Mysteries", posted Nov. 11, 2021:
(this commenter is different from account who made the earlier comment about ringing the doorbell in NY):

This dude showed up at my parents house 3 years ago in the middle of the night, asking for help and saying he needed to be let in. Absolutely no way was that happening. Long story short we found out after the fact that he was a character in Detroit Rock City & American History X some of my favorite movies
The last video of him I saw was a crazed rant of him yelling about censorship of art. He was real angry and cursing in a vlog style video. I think some people were criticizing him for use of racist language in his films I’m not exactly sure but I saw snippets of his rant and then the video was taken down a month later along with everything else.

1 year ago:
> He currently lives in Elko Nevada after having a schizophrenic break he still lives with his loving mother part time and she takes care of him. I see him around town a lot and only recently found out that he is Giuseppe Andrews. I can answer most questions if you’re curious.
There was also an interesting thread about 4 years ago, on a different subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/RedLetterMedia/comments/gal55x/giuseppe_andrews/
A few of the more interesting remarks:

After his California days he spent a few years around Austin making films that mostly just starred himself and his wife Mary. Some of these are really good but his minimalism and experimentation are pushed to the limits here. Some are absolute garbage. After this there was a short stint in upstate New York with this same kind of limited style. Shortly into this cycle things for weird then he disappeared. Right before he disappeared he was posting a lot of troublesome content and releasing TONS of music and films with nonsensical names like "fffff" which would be followed up with "fffffffff". I haven't seen any of this stuff.

> I remember the New York era where things kinda went off the deep end. He released a lot of content where he talked a lot. There was quite a few where he would mention that he was desperately trying to reach out to John Frusciante
Has anyone else stumbled across any comments out there, that support this general narrative / add additional context, or perhaps give reason to believe something a bit different? In particular, towards the end with his site and the long drawn out "spoken word albums" / posts he would make? I listened to some of the audio samples when they were on the site years ago and some of it was unbelievably weird, like he was in a totally dissociated state, talking to people who weren't actually there. There were a couple specific celebrities he was "talking to" quite often, John Frusciante was one for sure, and another guitar player from a relatively small band I can't remember now (I looked them up at the time and thought it was particularly weird, as they were like a small time college rock band who had broken up years prior).
One thing I do remember quite distinctly was I was quite surprised when a shot of Giuseppe on a playground with a man and woman in upper state NY was posted to Instagram, a short while after his website went down. If I remember correctly, they were musicians and the caption said something to the effect that he was helping them film a video. At this point I thought he was more or less completely out of it based on what he'd been posting to his website, so I was really surprised that he had connected with some strangers to actually do something like that, but I don't believe there was ever any follow up posts. I haven't been able to find that post since, if anyone ever remembers seeing that, and who the couple were that would be unbelievably helpful to me!
From the bits and pieces that have come out, I feel like I can stitch together a bit of an understanding of how things might have gone down over the last decade, but a lot is still very speculative to an extent. I'm really curious if anyone out there can corroborate some of these stories in any way, or add any additional information!

(I’m a lawyer, not in practice, not in Maryland)
TL;DR—if a divorce decree and a will conflict as to the disposition of personal property, does the divorce decree control?
My husband’s beloved uncle passed away on April 3 of this year. He lived in Maryland and has a house there. The whole rest of the family lives out of state.
Probate has not been opened yet.
Uncle has no living children and named my SIL as his executor. The original will is recorded, executed in 2018. Uncle’s EP attorney talked my SIL through the probate filing process and seemed reluctant to rep her; I am in the process of finding her some names (if you practice in Prince George’s County, I’ll pass on your info). SIL is dedicated to doing things above board, as you’d hope.
Uncle was divorced from Ex in 1991. The portion of the divorce decree that has been emailed to me states that personal property was divided to the parties’ satisfaction and that all the remaining property inside the marital residence belongs to Uncle, but that in the event he predeceases Ex, all of his personal property is hers (that is a wild thing to let a client agree to imo, but admittedly not my wheelhouse).
Uncle’s will states that the real property/home at his address goes to Ex, but that personal property and residual estate go to my husband and SIL evenly.
The home was conveyed in 1972 to Uncle and Ex, husband and wife as TBE.
We all live far away and have been unable to get up there because my MIL (Uncle’s sister) is very ill, and my SIL has kids in elementary school. We were planning on doing a preliminary sorting of Uncle’s personal property the weekend of June 1, which is Uncle’s celebration of life, with the aim of getting things cleaned out so Ex can take possession of the house as soon as she’s legally able. But if the divorce decree controls, I guess the whole kit and kaboodle need to be left untouched.
Additional complicating factor is that Ex has a certain sovereign citizen air to her. My SIL had to do some internet sleuthing to find Ex, who went no contact with most of Uncle’s family some years ago.
Ex must have gotten wind of Uncle’s death, because she called my SIL this week ranting about how that’s her house, it’s been in her family for generations (it hasn’t) and nobody will keep her from it. SIL saying “we just need your address for the probate so we can deed the house to you” was met with “I don’t need a piece of paper to get what’s mine.”
Ex lives in rural Virginia, we think. We know Ex tried to have the locks changed on the house while Uncle was still alive and physically present. The locksmith got done with the front door, and Uncle wore hearing aids and didn’t realize he was there until he started working on the back door. 😳
So, with the understanding that Ex is going to fight with SIL (no matter what) even though their goals are aligned, what document will likely control, so we can set expectations?

My husband and I were high school sweethearts and got married very young (I was 19), but more on that later.
For now, backstory: we both come from rather toxic families and are both black sheep. The difference being I realized early on and my husband, being very sweet and naïve at times, didn’t realize his until I started pointing it out. My intentions were never to alienate his family, however, I’ve never liked the way they treated him. Especially his mother’s side.
One of the biggest examples that comes to mind was how he worked over the summer for his Aunt one year before we even met, and instead of giving the money to him, the money was given to his mom‘s parents who kept it in an account “for him“ that he couldn’t access. Later, they bought him a car with it, but put it in their name. When I found out, I immediately pointed out that that was kind of messed up, it’s nice that he got a car, but that money should’ve been given to him and at the very least the car should have been in his name. But as he usually does, he chose to see the bright side of things, so for the most part he was just happy that he had a car. Fast-forward a year or two, and he was driving up most weekends to visit me in college when he wasn’t working (about 1 1/2 hours each way, so not very far by Texas standards), when his grandparents decided that they didn’t like that and they tried to stop him, but that argument didn’t last very long and they relented. It wasn’t until they started telling him that he couldn’t visit his dad using the car that things really got dicey.
And it’s not like his dad lived very far, he lived in the same neighborhood as his mom, and in the same neighborhood that we had grown up in. And this time they would not relent, they absolutely despise his father. The divorce was messy and even though neither is completely blameless, she definitely had the worst offenses. Just trust me on that. Since then, it’s like she never learned how to be an adult and has been a perpetual 16-year-old, always complaining about everything and with her parents always holding the purse strings (though you could argue it’s always been that way, her parents paid for her schooling to be a dance major and she never did anything with that, they defended her bad decisions during the divorce, paid the mortgage on her large house afterwards, and even now after expressing how much she doesn’t enjoy being around her parents, she refuses to leave and still lives with a family member).
Anyways, after his grandparents threatened to take away the car (which he used for work as a pizza delivery man and obviously his mom didn’t stand up for him) if he tried to visit his dad, he let his dad know and I helped him move out of his mom‘s house that night while she was at work. It made him terribly unhappy at first, especially to leave his younger siblings behind, but he knew what they were doing was wrong, and he was over 18 and thats simply a line you don’t cross. His dad baught him a car to use.
It should be noted that he likely would not have said anything to his father or moved out if I hadn’t pushed him to, and that’s probably why a good portion of his family aren’t really big fans of mine. Even several years after we were married and possibly even to this day, they think I make all of the decisions in our relationship and force him to do what makes me happy even if he doesn’t want to, which of course is not the case, we discuss and agree on every major decision. When I was pregnant with our son, our first child, we were at his dad‘s mom‘s house and I was often sitting and asking him to get things for me and the like and he ended up going to get food with one of his sisters and she literally told him that she didn’t like how I was constantly asking him to do things and I wasn’t doing anything for myself. The pregnancy was very hard on me, I LOST 11 lbs and had to work the whole time and had no paid leave, so yes I tried to relax as much as I could. These are just a few examples of their behavior, his mother and her parents are also often emotionally and psychologically manipulative and abusive, comparing him to his cousins which they often consider “more successful“ especially since he decided he didn’t want to be a doctor and wanted to work in a lab instead, and anytime he tries to argue back with his mom she does the whole “I guess I’m just a horrible mom“ thing. Something I am very well familiar with in my own life. Needless to say, I am not the biggest fan of his family.
I did one year of my university before I decided it wasn’t the right path for me and about that time he was about finished with community college and was looking to go to university next. He ended up getting excepted into the university that I had gone to, but didn’t really want to move into the dorms as someone who was older than most freshman, but also couldn’t afford an apartment on his own. So we decided that we would get married and move up there together, we were already engaged as he proposed to me on my 18th birthday. It was the perfect set up as being under the same roof as my mother again really sucked.
I don’t quite remember why we decided to get married three months from that point, it was kind of stressful. But during that time him and his mother had another huge falling out, of course with her parents being on her side, and the deal with the car was still fresh in everyone’s minds. After that I didn’t want her at the wedding, or her parents, and while it did upset him a bit(notice a trend? He is very sweet and has a tender heart and is a recovering people-pleaser) he agreed that it would just be unnecessary drama.
It was a very small wedding as my parents gave me $2000 and I used half of that on a weekend honeymoon and the other half to cover the cupcakes and the photographer (who was an old friend of ours from high school). My youth pastor who at this point also knew my (soon to be) husband was the officiant and graciously let us use the foyer the youth building free of charge for the ceremony. This was a small neighborhood church so the room wasn’t very big but we weren’t inviting a ton of people so we were fine with it, especially since it was mostly windows and it was pretty nice especially since we didn’t have to pay for it. We ended up inviting both sets of my parents, my sister and her small family, and my little sister and my mom‘s parents. (note the parents, siblings, and my closest grandparents) In the end, after his mother begged, we did end up letting her come, and then of course his father came and his siblings and his father‘s mom. (Note the parents, siblings, and his closest grandparent). Our closest friends were there which was 6 people, and then my small group from church had spent the night decorating the foyer for the ceremony so of course they were invited too. The numbers were slightly skewed in my favor as both of my parents have remarried, my sister was married with 2 kids, and both of my grandparents were still alive at the time. So yes, technicality he had less people there, but he told me that he didn’t mind after I pointed this out to him back when we were talking about who to invite. And his family really didn’t like this. We both have large families. Only mine was scattered to the four winds and his lived exclusively in Texas. If his mom‘s parents hadn’t been treating him like dirt I happily would’ve invited them too, and seeing as I didn’t even invite my step sisters who had been in my life since I was two, I didn’t think it would be appropriate to invite his cousins, especially since the room was plenty full as it was. Again, he understood and was OK with all of this.
In the end, it was very sweet and small and the reception just took place at one of our favorite restaurants.
To this day, he still catches flack for more of his family not being invited, especially is mom’s parents, and we are always told by third parties about things his family say about us and especially me. (one of them even called me a gold digger, even though at the time was working at Domino’s. His mom told us she was the only one who “stood up for me” in that moment, but the best response she could come up with was “my son doesn’t have money“).
I have no qualms about what we did. We have since moved halfway across the country, recently celebrated our 8 year anniversary, and are very happy. The things they say still weigh on us though, so I was hoping to prove a point with this post.
So, are we the assholes for not inviting most of my husband’s family to the wedding?

https://archive.is/O7UA5
Laura Barletta and her husband Vincent’s connection to New Salem began with Vincent’s grandmother Helen Truman, who attended school at New Salem Academy. After the school closed in 1969, the building, which originally housed the home economics classes for the school and served as a dormitory, became a private residence.
When Vincent’s father, also named Vincent, took a fall foliage drive through New Salem one day in the 1980s, he noticed the former New Salem Academy building at 37 South Main St. was for sale. When he came back to the family home in Dedham, he said, “I think I found a project for us!” Laura Barletta recounted.
The family purchased the home and turned it into their vacation property, celebrating holidays and special events there, including weddings.
“We were married in the Congregational Church in 1997 and the wedding reception was at the house,” Laura said. “A couple of years later, my sister-in-law was married in the backyard.”
When her mother-in-law Patricia Barletta decided to sell the house, Laura was saddened about the sale. At the same time, Laura and Vincent, who both enjoy art collecting, had hired Michael Klein to paint an anniversary portrait of them. Klein, noting that they were sad about the sale, suggested purchasing the home and bringing the Barletta art collection to New Salem to display. The Barlettas purchased the home, and in August 2023, opened the New Salem Museum and Academy of Fine Art. The museum is located on 2 acres with a vegetable and rose garden and a pond.
The Barlettas have been collecting art for 20 years. Their collecting began, Laura said, when “we were taking an anniversary trip to New York City and saw a Michael Klein painting in a gallery window and bought it. We started looking for more. We bought what we liked at art galleries and shows.”
Once they knew they would be creating the museum, she said they picked up the pace.
“Most of the collection are painters who are currently painting,” Laura said. “They are technical paintings of portraits, landscapes and still lifes, which are painted in the manor of old European painters. There are no abstracts. These are paintings similar to those you would see at the MFA, but painted by people who are alive.
“I am hoping that the public will have access to paintings [that] are usually in galleries, then purchased for private collections, never to be seen again,” she added.
In the permanent display are paintings by Jordan Sokol, Jeremy Lipking, Colleen Barry and Michael Klein. The collection also includes a painting by John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth. Sculptors in the permanent display include Kate Lehman, Oliver Czarnetta and Daniel Sprick.
One gallery will be used by museum Director Michael Klein to bring in works by some of his favorite artists. The summer rotation will include art from Cesar Santos, Francois Bard and older pieces by Edgar Maxence. The museum will be closed on June 10 to assemble the new rotation and will reopen Friday, July 14.
The museum will also provide a place for artists and students to hone their crafts through workshops and classes. Among the classes being offered is a portrait class from July 22 to June 26, which is currently full, although there is a wait list available.
A group of 13 students from Athol High School came to visit the museum in December with English teacher Beth Gospodarek. The students did writing assignments based on the paintings, Laura said.
The museum is open from Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and from New Year’s Day through Feb. 15.
The following libraries offer passes to the New Salem Museum: Athol Public Library, New Salem Public Library, Petersham Memorial Library, Phinehas S. Newton Library in Royalston, Leverett Library, Dickinson Memorial Library in Northfield, and M.N. Spear Memorial Library in Shutesbury.
More information about the museum can be found at:
https://www.newsalemmuseum.com/

I (17f) recently went on a trip that lasted about a week (5 days). One of these days fell on April 1st. Although not widely celebrated in every single country some people from my country do it as a way to be funny.
Now we all had a set amount of money we were given for the day and what was left over would be added to the next day's amount. Our chaperones, two teachers and one of the teachers husband's were the only adults on this trip and they were obviously tasked with keeping the money and keep it safe.
We were at a concert when the mood suddenly changed and one of our chaperones said we had to get back to our lodging.
We were told that someone had stolen the money and they were searching the rooms.
Me and my two roommates had been together all day and knew neither one of us did it so we weren't freaking out like the others.
They found the person who stole the money but didn't tell any of us who it was. Emotions were high and everyone was pissed off at having their night of fun end because someone stole money we worked hard to get.(All of us worked and promoted the hell out of things just to be able to afford the trip)
My roommates and I decided to go take a shower because we had been sweating like pigs because of the heatwave that was running through the town we were in. It was a I'd dance in the rain if it came type of heat.
While in the shower one of the younger girls (I'm calling her Mia for privacy reasons) came in and asked us if we knew who stole the money.
We said no and she proceeded to tell us that this other girl (Jennie for privacy) was telling everyone it was Mia's best friend.
Now I will be the first to admit. I do not get along with Jennie. We were in the same middle school and she made me an outcast because I was interested in the old traditions of Halloween. Everyone I knew at school said it was something the devil used so that he could run around and do whatever he wants. I was called a satan worshipper because I was stuck in a school with a bunch of not so good Christians. Another instance was when she scrutinized me because I knew about the Gods of Greek Myhtology and said that I would be willing to worship them because of their values. (This was because we had a discussion in class about greek mythology and it's influence on the world past and present). She was not happy about it and kept making snide remarks and judging me.
I'm short, round, blonde and I make myself known. I really don't need to be judged by someone who had a stick up there.
There are other instances where we didn't get along but these two were the biggest reasons because honestly if you're going to call me a Satanist at the least you could get the pire ready.
Anyway, I was raised that innocent till proven guilty, and since no one knew who had done it she couldn't make comments.
I said as much. I also said that she should keep her nose out of it because it wasn't her place because what if it wasn't her and the girl's name was being dragged for something she didn't do? Rumors spread fast and true or not you still get judged for them.
Jennie came into the bathroom and told me to say it to her face instead of behind her back. I did. She got pissed.
Found out it was Mia's friend and only after some whole dramatized spiel of were sending her home, she would be expelled and us wondering if there was something we could do to help her if she was having financial troubles at home.
We were told about it being a prank and just as we got over the shock Jennie looked at me and my friend and said she demanded an apology from the both of us.
My friend also voiced her opinion in the bathroom by I have a pair of lungs, I speak a whole lot more and I'm the only one who had beef with herdue to past events.
I didn't apologize and neither did my friend because, A) Jennie wasn't in on the prank so she showed us her true colours by going around and telling everyone about it. She showed everyone she had made friends with that she was willing to throw them to the wolves if it meant she could have the spotlight. B) Had the scenario been real and I was the one who stole I would have liked for someone to stand up for me in my absence.(A I did a bad thing but I don't deserve to have my name dragged through the mud) Mia and her friend are both 15, Jennie is 19 going 20 (this is true she was held back in kindergarten twice). They are shy and get intimidated easily by older years and Jennie is imposing as f*ck. C)Younger girls are chatty some of them had already messaged some of their friends and told them what Jennie said. 20 people are going to think Mia's friend stole the money before they find out it's a prank.
I don't think I was in the wrong but I recently told this story to one of my other friends and she said I should have apologized because while I was advocating for someone else's right to privacy I was simultaneously hurting someone else's reputation by branding them a liar and a generally untrustworthy person with no sense of boundaries.
So AITA?

u/ambyKittyKat - What an adorable card!! The dogs look so sweet! Thank you so much!
u/misosoup13 - Thank you for the cute birthday postcard! I really appreciate it!
u/ninajyang - So cute! All the little "monster" faces! Thank you for celebrating with me!
u/BucketResidence - What a pretty card! Thank you so much! I'd like to send you a thank you if you'd like to send your address. And thank you for the stickers!!
u/Ishouldbeteaching - You never fail to amaze! Thank you so much for being a part of my celebration!
u/germymany - I'm sorry, they covered your name with the cancel thingies and I can't make it out, I hope I'm close. I love the parakeet and cupcake card, reminded me of my birds. Thank you!
u/haikusbyka - Another written over by the PO - I hope this is close - Thank you for The "fish story" postcard! Haha!
u/rand_ston - Pretty card! It really was an amazing day, thank you for making it special!
u/TyeDyeAmish - Thank you so much for the cute card, I did make a wish!
u/rhapsodytravelr - Thank you for the lovely card and I enjoyed sharing my birthday with all of you! Thanks for being a part of it!
u/jubilan - It really was amazing, thank you! And thank you for the book store card, I love old book stores!
u/Elley-bean - Thank you for the beautiful card and stickers! I try to carry those things with me at all times!
u/SweetyDarlingLulu - It really was a special day, week actually! Thank you for the cute postcard and well wishes!
u/queenofthescreen - Thank you so much for the adorable card, all the good wishes and all the "prezzies"! You spoil me! Thank you for being part of my celebration!
u/duttonemelia - It was an amazing day, thank you! Love the cute card and that you took the time to celebrate with me!
u/travel4me22 - Thank you for the gorgeous handmade card and bookmark! I love to read and even though I do have a Kindle, there are some books that I still like to reread and hold in my hand! You're so very talented!
u/UnityB - Thank you for the cute balloon birthday card and the stickers! I appreciate you taking the time to celebrate with me! Have to say the the inside of the envelope having the matching balloons is adorable!
u/Due-Celebration-9463 - Butterflies! Thank you for the lovely card and such special words, I really appreciate you celebrating with me! I have not tried my tea yet, I'm wondering how it would be over ice?
Many thank to all the mods!
As I wrote my thank yous I was amazed at how very special you all are and how you all took the time to stop and celebrate with me by sending me so much happiness. I hope all your days are blessed, even the ones that make us doubt ourselves or our direction. To me, you are very special, you are one of a kind and you made me extremely happy, in my eyes, you are all very special individuals. XOXO

The majority of Eminem's rap feuds have been against Z-list celebrities, middle-aged contemporary R&B/pop singers, and washed-up rappers. Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon, Benzino (his second diss song was well-written, but there are rumors that it was ghostwritten), Melle Mel (he's an aging old school rap artist from a bygone era), Ja Rule (admittedly, he had few scathing lines on Loose Change), Machine Gun Kelly, Insane Clown Posse, Moby (he's not even a rap artist), Christina Aguilera, Charlamagne tha God, Will Smith, Lord Jamar, and Jermaine Dupri.
There's this revisionist idea that artists "don't or didn't want smoke" with Eminem. Artists just don't go after one another unprovoked because that's generally not how rap beefs start. In order for a rapper to diss another rapper (especially elite ones), there would need to be some sort of pre-existing animosity in the air. There have been a few instances where Eminem has gone head-to-head with a skilled opponent, namely Cage, Canibus, and arguably Everlast. With Cage, it was accusations of "style biting." With Everlast, it was over a perceived disrespectful interaction with Eminem. With Canibus, there were rumors that Eminem ghostwrote LL Cool J's The Ripper Strikes Back.
Eminem, however, never bothered to respond to the diss songs written by Evidence, Esham, K-Rino, Pacewon, or the Game.
I think what's more interesting is that, outside of written diss records, if you look at Eminem's freestyle battle rap record, he's lost to rappers with sharp penmanship, notably Rhymefest, MC Juice, Otherwize, and Doseone (it's important to point out that Eminem had been rapping for almost a decade before participating in Scribble Jam and the Rap Olympics, so he wasn't some fresh-faced beginner in the rap battle circuit).
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Every Sunday, or whenever it is possible, I give a recap of the sermon I heard at church today. I am Orthodox but I visit Catholic and Protestant churches to learn about them when we don't do the Liturgy. Keep in mind that this is a recap of the sermon I heard; this does not necessarily mean I agree with it. This is to share what is actually being taught in Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches, which may challenge or perhaps strengthen preconceptions.
Today's readings:
Acts 2:1-11

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

Galatians 5:16-25

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

John 15:26-27; 16:12-15

When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

This evening, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. The feast raises two questions for us: first, why does the Holy Spirit come upon the disciples only then? Why fifty days after the Resurrection, and ten days after the Ascension? Upon which conditions does He come? And second, why does the Holy Spirit, when He comes upon us, not produce the same extraordinary results? When He fell upon the apostles, they could evangelize the entire world, they were on fire for God. Why does the same effect not happen for us?
To address the first question: By the time of Pentecost, Christ had already left. The apostles' time spent with Him already felt like a distant memory. They were once full of certainty when He was with them, but now they are hiding in the upper room in fear and anticipation. Why does the Holy Spirit come upon them at that time? Because He can only fill up an empty heart; it is as with a cup of water, if it is full then adding a drop of anything else would cause it to overflow, and if it is not totally empty the new drink will only mix with the old, but it must be totally empty to be filled with the new drink.
The apostles abandoned any hope for worldly glory after the Ascension; at the Ascension itself, they still expected such a thing, asking Christ when He would restore the Kingdom of Israel, but His answer made them understand that one must not hope for a worldly kingdom, but for the heavenly Kingdom of God. Now, pride is no longer an obstacle preventing them from receiving the Spirit, for pride is the enemy of everything that is good.
Today's reading began like the scene of the Tower of Babel, as many men from around the world are gathered. Then, mankind hoped to reach up to the heavens and have its name inscribed in glory; the Tower of Babel was for the glory of man. But the gift of the Holy Spirit is for the glory of God. But, let us be careful about seeking the glory of man.
Let us look at this very church: the pillars were once as tall as those of the local cathedral, but human ambition and competition led to these pillars getting renovated to be even taller, messing up the intended proportions of the building... Also, there used to be frescoes depending the scene of Pentecost between the arcades, but the latter were modified in the baroque era: it was thought that the baroque style was more fashionable, and so these were renovated, but as a result the frescoes can no longer be seen. Likewise, pride is often hidden from ourselves, yet it truly prevents us from seeing what we should see!
So, it is when the apostles were freed from pride that they could be fitting recipients for the Holy Spirit. In fact, they were not only without pride, but they were even wounded, having before their eyes their own betrayal and abandonment of Christ. Yet sometimes, such a wound is a necessary condition to receive the Spirit as well. Here is an analogy: for a long time, we had no idea why some oysters had pearls and some did not. But it was finally discovered that an oyster generates a pearl as a defense mechanism, when it is wounded, such as when small rocks get inside their shell and hurt them. So likewise, our sin can be a necessary wound to cure us from pride.
To address the second question: When they received the Holy Spirit, the disciples began to speak in tongues and to proclaim the Gospel. But as for us, when we receive the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation, no such evident signs happen. So, what of it? Here is another analogy: When we get a car restored, we love to turn it on, to hear its engine purr, we may step on the accelerator and hear the car go “vroom”... but, the car is not actually moving, it is only making noise. One must activate the transmission manually for it to actually start. And for us Christians, there is no automatic transmission! We must connect the power of the Spirit with our own will.
Evil has nothing to do whatsoever with the Spirit, as St. Paul described in his epistle. We must actively make an effort to abstain from evil, and only then will the Holy Spirit empower us. This is not easy in the slightest, but we must find the motivation to do it! Imagine if your sins were openly published in the newspaper every day, would this not suffice to motivate you to no longer sin? Imagine if your good works were displayed to the angels in the world to come as a film for them to watch, would this not suffice to motivate you to obey the commandments?
Today, the Holy Spirit still comes upon us as He did upon the apostles. But He does not do so violently, He does not force our will; we must first align our will with Him and then He will come. If we do not speak in tongues, let us at least speak with the universal tongue known as “charity.” If we begin with this, by proclaiming the Gospel in such a manner to all those around us, not necessarily to people in another country speaking a foreign tongue but rather to the people immediately around us, then the Holy Spirit will, through ourselves, transform the world around us.
Let us pray that the Holy Spirit descends upon us, that His work may be efficacious in us. Amen.