First Off: SPOILERS FOR THE STORY!
Even if it was not perfect, I highly recommend "A Study in Scarlet!" It's fascinating to see Sherlock Holmes' first literary adventure. Not only to compare and contrast it with how the character and its interpretations have evolved over the years, but to witness the craft and skill of Arthur Conan Doyle in crafting a gripping Victorian yarn (at about the tenth the size of the usual length of a serialized story of that period)
You've been warned!
"Study in Scarlet" is many things, but it certainly is no boring.
I had spent many years of my young life being exposed to many differing interpretation of iconoclastic consulting detective, and have loved almost every single one of them. But, in spite of there (usually) good quality, these were merely "echoes" of the actual thing.
As such, earlier this year, me and several friends of mine formed a sort of book club, intent on finally reading this famed novel. We would go about it a chapter every two days and hopefully finish it in about a month.
Well, life being what it is, delays in readings accrued. For some, it was a missed chapter on a particular day (guilty as charged).
For others, well, they're still reading it.
Which brings me to this review. Two months back I had finally finished my copy of the novel, a beautifully researched and annotated printed under the "Oxford World Classics" label. I would heartily recommend this version, as it helped clarify some of the misconceptions put forth by the book in its second half, shedding a light on some of Arthur Conan Doyle's politics in the process.
More on that later.
For now, let's get on with the show.
It's 1881 in Victorian Era England. John Watson, a 2nd Afghanistan War Doctor has been discarged back to his home country following injury. Quickly running out of money from the meager army pension he makes, he meets up with an old hospital colleague who introduces him to the titular Sherlock Holmes.
This introduction was utterly fascinating, portraying a Sherlock who is utterly giddy and quirky in a way that I've never seen him as in any other adaption. It immediately sheds a light on his eccentric nature, and I would be remissed if I didn't mention how it seems to feel reminiscent of those on the spectrum. I almost lament that this aspect of his character is largley absent in most adaptions. It's quite endearing.
Following this meet-up, Sherlock and Watson get on quite well. Enough so that they decide to purchase an apartment and become roommates on, you guessed it, 221b Baker Street.
(An address that doesn't actually exist, as my annotated copy pointed out. Shame.)
It is at this point, Watson notes, that he realizes just how eccentric Holmes really is.
We have the usual expected details, the ones adaptions tend to carry over. Is reading of police reports and "sensational literature," his immense knowledge of poisons and murder methods, and even a violin he strums to calm himself. Then there are the more... obscure aspects. Thankfully, Watson made a sort of list that can help. His uncommon knowledge of all things crime seems to have usurped the place of layman's knowledge in his "Mind palace." His awareness of politics is little, and his knowledge of normal literature, philosophy, and astrology is "nil," to quote Watson.
He doesn't even know that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Sherlock Holmes. Master detective. Doesn't know that the Earth revolves around the damn Sun.
Utterly, hilarious.
Anyways, after some rumination on the science of deduction, we are thrust into the story either an incoming telegram from Inspector Lestrade. Since Sherlock's occupation is being a consulting detective, he offers aid to the stumped police for a small fee. A man has been found dead from a supposed suicide in an abandoned building, with only a bloody word written above a mantelpiece as any indication of motivation.
"RACHE"
However, rather than focusing on the crime itself, Sherlock focuses on the surrounding area, poking around and astutely Study every single little detail he comes across with utter focus. After an extended amount of time does he actually arrive at the main crime scene to study, and the bloody message. The police, of course, assume it's a name: "Rachel." However, Sherlock (in his boundless intelligence) surmises that it is actually the German word "Revenge." Not only that, but he figures out there was another man, working out his height, walk, and dress.
This isn't a suicide. It's murder.
The investigation continues, another murder occurs, a suprisingly exciting chase scene happens, and finally Sherlock lures the murderer right into the heart of 221b Baker Street.
Enter "The Killer Mormons."
It's at this point that the story takes an unexpected left turn, as we suddenly flash back 34 years ago in America, and a community of Mormons in Salt Lake City.
Look, before we proceed, I should clarify that I am not Mormon. At best, my exposure to Mormon culture was stumbling across a Mormon museum out in Albany, NY and that one South Park Episode.
All of that is to say that I don't know too much about the culture, so I was appreciative that my book helped clarify some misconceptions and biased viewings that Doyle sadly indulged in here. For what little Doyle got right, he got a lot wrong, with a lot of it seemingly being the result of fear mongering and disgust. It's kind of uncomfortable, seeing Doyle villianize an actual religion and community and portraying them as a murderous cult with a secret hit squad essentially.
It's weird, and it definitely sheds a light on why I've never seen a straight adaption of this story.
Still, we get a fascinating tragic love story. The murderer was an American cowboy simply avenging his dearly beloved, a young girl adopted by the Mormon community along with her own adoptive dad. She and her father intended to leave the community, but the Motmon Elder was having none of it, intending to marry her off to another Mormon member. After the girl and her father were murdered by the earlier murder victims of this story in retaliation, the cowboy set off on a trail of vengeance that would stretch on for decades, until the stars finally aligned for him to go in for the kills. And once he explains his side of the story to Holmes and the police, he dies of an aneurysm.
The next day, the papers credit the police for cracking the case, leaving Watson determined to set the record straight much to Holmes' bemusement.
And with that, our mystery comes to an end.
I walked away from the story feeling bowled over by the sheer scope of it all. What started off as a classic Holmes mystery, evolved into a western epic full of love, betrayal, death and... Killer Mormons.
It should probably be a testament to Doyle's immense skill as a storyteller that the deeply flawed second section was as compelling as it was. It's flawed view of Mormon culture definitely didn't help it, and one wonders if it were replaced with a generic commune/cult, it would have been the better for it. It certainly was interesting regardless, but perhaps my own love of western movies helped.
It was great to finally see Sherlock's "science of deduction" methodology in play, and it's as amazing as I've heard.
I also came away from the novel better appreciating what Doyle brought to the detective genre, and even Sherlock as a whole!
To those who have seen media based on Sherlock, and loved it, I implore you to check out the novels. At least then I'll have someone to talk about this crazy book with, heh.
Can't wait to read "The Sign of Four" next!

Contest Rules For Best Song Of The Month • Updated May 19th, 2024

Click here to see summary of changes.

Best Song Of The Month Contest

Music Or Lose It hosts a monthly Best Song Of The Month contest at this musicorloseittv subreddit community. There is no cash or monetary value prize at this time. This contest is simply just for fun. Winners earn the enjoyment of being voted the best. Winners may cite the win in their biographies and social media posts.
The moderator (mod) is available to help music creators with the entry process, eligibility requirements, and deadlines. Music creators are allowed to contact the mod to ask questions about the contest anytime and mod will reply as soon as possible.
Definitions
Music creator: refers to a solo creator, band, group, choir, orchestra, or duo.
Brand identity: refers to how a creator presents themselves as an entertainer making music for the general public. For example, Simon & Garfunkel as a duo is one brand identity. Paul Simon solo is another brand identity.

Process & Deadlines

🟡 Round 1
1) Discovery ◦ Each month, moderator keeps track of songs shared at this musicorloseittv community.
2) Notifying Music Creators ◦ When a likely eligible song is seen, the u/musicorloseittv profile or u/themusicfanman profile will notify the music creator of likely eligibility within the qualifying song’s post. The reply will indicate, “⏳ This song appears eligible for the Best Song Of The Month contest. Please provide the following information…” If the song is confirmed to be eligible by a mod, the mod will make a reply “🟨 This is confirmation notifying you that this song is eligible and in consideration for the Best Song Of The Month contest…” within the qualifying song’s post.
3) Determining Contestants ◦ The Music Fan man will evaluate all eligible songs by the month’s eligibility deadline. He will then at his discretion choose up to 5 songs to compete.
3) Finalists Post ◦ At this musicorloseittv community, the musicorloseittv profile will announce the top finalists (up to 5) in a post tiled “Contest: Best Song Of The Month Finalists (Insert Month & Year).” This announcement will be done in a post made 4 days before the final day of the month. The post will be made sometime in the morning. The songs will be listed within the post in a manner most representative of music diversity as determined by the musicorloseittv profile mod. All songs available on YouTube will be included in a playlist titled “Best Song Of The Month Contestants • (Insert Month & Year)” hosted by the musicorloseittv channel on YouTube. Songs not available on YouTube will be excluded from the playlist. The playlist will be mentioned in this post. The available playlist will help voters get familiar with the songs.
The u/musicorloseittv profile or u/themusicfanman profile will notify the music creators of qualifying for the contest in their post of the song. The reply will indicate, “✅ Congratulations. Your song qualifies for the Best Song Of The Month contest…”
4) Voting ◦ The “Contest: Best Song Of The Month Finalists (Insert Month & Year)” post will specify a duration of 3 consecutive dates during which music fans can vote for only 1 of the top finalists. Voting occurs by the voters making a reply to the post in the following manner: “🗳️ I vote for….” Failing to vote in this manner will result in vote not being counted. To best ensure vote accuracy, voters must not use the “🗳️” emoji anywhere else in the post’s comments section. Music creators may vote for another music creator yet may not vote for themselves. For music creators, it’s “word of honor” voting. The top vote earning song within these three days will become the winner.
‣ Community moderator profiles musicorloseittv and onesongoftheday will abstain from voting. Also, themusicfanman and any special judge involved will also abstain from voting - unless they’re needed to serve as a tie breaker, in the event of a tie preventing a clear winner. If themusicfanman and any special judge involved are needed as a tie breaker, they must come to a consensus to achieve tie breaking. If no special judge is involved, then themusicfanman alone will serve as the tie breaker.
🟢 Winner Declaration!
Declaration Post ◦ At this musicorloseittv community, on the final day of the month, the musicorloseittv profile will announce the winner in a post tiled “Congratulations! 🎉 Best Song Of The Month Winner (Insert Month & Year)” in a post dedicated to celebrating the song. Using the sticky-post feature, the post will be prominently displayed the home page of the musicorloseittv subreddit community for ≈ 24 hours.
Achievement ◦ The contest winner may promote their song as:
My song “Song Title” won:
🏅Best Song Of The Month By Community Vote
(Insert Month & Year)
At The Music Or Lose It Community
The winner may promote themselves and the song as the winner at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads, or their YouTube channel’s Community feed. The winner may also cite the win in their biographies online including their personal website.
🏆 Song Of The Year
A similar Song Of The Year vote will occur in December. It will be similarly organized and scheduled to conclude on the final day of the year. To determine a Song Of The Year by the end of the year, December’s monthly contest will only be ≈ 2 weeks. Why? Because we need time to conclude The Song Of The Year vote by the end of the year. Additionally, this is a busy time of year for many people. What’s more, non-Christmas music released in December is typically overshadowed by Christmas music. It seems to be a bad idea to release new-original music in late December. See opinion commentary: The Best And Worst Months To Release Music.
Achievement ◦ The contest winner may promote their song as:
🏆 Best Song Of The Year By Community Vote
(Insert Year)
At The Music Or Lose It Community
The winner may promote themselves and the song as the winner at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads, or their YouTube channel’s Community feed. The winner may also cite the win in their biographies online including their personal website.

Eligibility

Here are the rules for the Best Song Of The Month contest organized by Music Or Lose It just for fun. The eligibility rules are intended to make this contest as fair as possible to the music creator participants.
**👤 Personal: **
Requirements:
✔️ Must be an actual human.
✔️ Must be 17 years of age or older.
✔️ Must be a music creator abiding by the rules of this musicorloseittv subreddit community.
✔️ Must be a music creator posting using either your personal profile or your brand profile as a music entertainer.
Ineligible:
🚫 Profiles run by publicists, music labels, or channels hosting performers.
🚫 People posing as other humans using imitation avatar type creations by artificial intelligence (AI).
**🗿 Music creator’s stature status: **
Eligible:
✔️ Unsigned amateur or unsigned professional yet lesser known.
✔️ Lesser known music creators who have not yet achieved two different songs with over 500,000 views/listens and are signed to deals with small to medium-sized record companies or seeming one-song-per-time type distributors.
✔️ Lesser known music creators who have not yet achieved two different songs with over 500,000 views/listens and are signed to deals with to a major label.
**📅 Release date: **
Eligible:
✔️ Your song must be published and accessible to the masses anytime between November 15^th of the prior year and 5 days before the final day of the current month.
**💽 Songwriting, singing, & recording: **
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the copyright owner of the song (lyrics and sound recording) or authorized/licensed to perform the song by the copyright owner as the first original performer.
✔️ An exception is made if your song is an authorized/licensed remix or includes authorized/licensed interpolation or sampling content by the copyright owner in collaboration with any other amateur music creator(s) or unsigned professional yet lesser known music creator(s). The aforementioned release date also applies to any remix, interpolation, or sampling content.
✔️ Collaborations within the aforementioned rules are allowed so long as the song is entered into the contest by the lead. Lead refers to the first person named in the collaboration.
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Songs written by artificial intelligence (AI).
🚫 Songs primarily generated artificial intelligence (AI).
🚫 Cover, parody, nor artificial intelligence (AI) imitation.
🚫 Songs likely to be very divisive for political or religious/anti-religious reasons.
🚫 Collaborations within deceased music creators akin to “Unforgettable” by Natalie Cole featuring Nat "King" Cole.
🚫 Interpolations, remixes, or samplings of a song by a creator signed to a record company of any size or signed to a one-song-per-time type distributor.
🚫 Song with hard cussing. No variations of F word, S word, C word, D word, N word (er or a), ahole word(s), or sexually vulgar words.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
🚫 Songs primarily about brands. For example: “I Love Driving Such-And-Such Brand Name Trucks.”
**👂 Recording quality: **
Allowed:
✔️ Professional quality recordings (live or studio).
✔️ Amateur quality (including songs record in a bedroom, car, outdoors, etc…) yet reasonably pleasant sounding.
✔️ Demos are welcome.
Ineligible:
🚫 Live records with too much interfering audience noise.
🚫 Recordings with excessively poor sound quality (abrasive on the ears, difficult to hear).
**📏 Song length: **
Requirement:
✔️ Minimum of 01:15 minutes up to 10:00 minutes.
**💻 Distribution venues: **
Requirements:
✔️ A song published and accessible to the general public masses at a well-known music website such as YouTube, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp.
✔️ A song uploaded to a channel hosting live performances is allowed so long as the song is entered into the contest directly by the creator and so long as the creator confirms permission by the channel. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ The song’s upload date must be visible at the distribution venue website.
⚠️ If you enter this contest with a Spotify or TikTok URL link, ensure you’ve provided a link for the entire song (not a teasesampler) in a manner that does not require login; ensure the publish date is visible; and be weary of looping flashing visuals necessitating a “⚠️Possible Seizure Trigger Risk Warning.” Failing to do this will result in ineligibility.
Ineligible:
🚫 Login required to access the song.
🚫 Payment required to access the song.
🚫 Uploads of songs directly to Reddit.
🚫 Links not fully available to the public such as an “unlisted” YouTube video.
**🖼️ Song’s artwork: **
Definition: artwork refers to the image/drawing/photo/visuals accompanying your individual song at a music distribution venue such as YouTube, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp. It is sometimes referred to as “cover art.”
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the original creator of the song’s accompanying artwork.
✔️ Alternatively, you must be the copyright owner of the artwork if you paid to have it made. Otherwise you must be authorized/licensed to publish the artwork as part of the presentation of your song.
✔️ Artwork primarily generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is allowed so long as you are authorized/licensed by the AI source to publish the artwork as part of your song’s public presentation. However this is advised against because public sentiment may be hostile towards AI generated content.
✔️ If your song’s artwork uses aspects of copyrighted, creative commons, or “free” material content, you must confirm you’ve got authorization/licensing to use the content as part of your song’s public presentation. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ Your own logo that you own the copyright to may be displayed in the song’s accompanying artwork (including on a person wearing a hat or T-shirt).
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Parody notably displayed in the artwork.
🚫 Visible logos of any brand other than your own logo as a music entertainer.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
**🎥 Song’s music video (optional): **
Including a link to a music video is optional.
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the original creator of the song’s music video visuals including: animation; moving graphics; prominently featured still artwork or photos.
✔️ Alternatively, you must be the copyright owner of all the video’s visuals if you paid to have them made. Otherwise you must be authorized/licensed to publish all the video’s visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ Visuals (including: animation; moving graphics; prominently featured still artwork or photos) primarily generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are allowed so long as you are authorized/licensed by the AI source to publish the artwork as part of your song’s public presentation. However this is advised against because public sentiment may be hostile towards AI generated content.
✔️ If your song’s accompanying music video uses aspects of copyrighted, creative commons or “free” material, you must confirm you’ve got authorization/licensing to use the copyrighted material as part of your song’s public presentation within the accompanying music video. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ Your own logo that you own the copyright to may be displayed in the video (including on a person wearing a hat or T-shirt).
✔️ Allowed music videos include “Official Music Video,” “Live Performance,” “Dance Video Version,” “Animated Video,” or “Lyrics Video.”
✔️ If you opt for an “Animated Video” or a “Lyrics Video,” you must be authorized/licensed to publish all the video’s visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video. If you hire an animator or use AI or an app/software designed to create music video lyrics, you must be authorized/licensed by the animator or AI source or app/software creator to publish the animation and/or lyrics as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ If you opt for a “Dance Video Version,” the dancing and/or choreography must be originally created for your song’s accompanying music video. If you hire a choreographer and/or dancers or collaborate for free or for barter, you must be authorized/licensed by the choreographer and/or dancers to publish the video’s dancing/choreography visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ “Official Audio” type music videos are allowed so long as an accompanying still image complies with the aforementioned “Song’s artwork” rules. Alternatively, if the “Official Audio” music videos has moving visuals, it must comply with these above-mentioned “Song’s music video” rules.
✔️ “Live Performance” music videos may be made from your home/cafield (pretty much anywhere decent and reasonable) or from one of your well-recorded performances from a show. Be sure to avoid copyright and trademark violations in the video.
⚠️ Brief uses of music distribution venue logos at the end or start of a music video may be allowed at mod’s discretion, when the intent is to inform the viewer of venue availability of the song. This is however discouraged unless the distribution venue, at their website, specifies this is allowed. Music videos that display any trademark logos (other than the music creator’s own copyrighted logo) entirely throughout are ineligible.
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Notable use of virtual reality program recordings.
🚫 Notable use of filters from apps/websites similar to Snapchat.
🚫 Parody of intellectual property characters prominently displayed in the video.
🚫 Notably visible logos of any brand other than your own logo as a music entertainer.
🚫 Notable display of brand products with visible logos including but not limited to toys, stuffed animals, autos, hats, T-Shirts.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
🚫 Limitations on involving minors (under 18 yo): no minors doing dangerous stunts; no depictions of minors participating in drugs/drinking/smoking or very sexual behavior (including sexual dancing); do not prominently feature children that are not your own in the video (exception may be made if a relative only allows you to involve their children).
⚖️ Quantities:
Requirements:
✔️ One song per music creator’s brand identity.
✔️ If a music creator uploads more than one of their brands’ potentially eligible songs, the music creator must inform mod which song they prefer to be included in the contest.
✔️ A music creator may win this Song Of The Month contest up to three consecutive times. If this happens, thereafter the creator must abstain from the contest for the next month and then may return to the contest after that 1-month eligibility hiatus.
Ineligible:
🚫 Every collaboration will not automatically be considered a new brand. For example, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss collaborating one time should not be considered a brand. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss making an entire album together should be considered a brand. Music creators attempting to enter multiple songs under multiple brand names will be scrutinized. If there is no social media presence for any additional brands, their songs will likely be rejected as “also eligible” by mods. If this happens, the music creator will have to enter only 1 song.
**🖱️ Accounts you may post from: **
Requirements:
✔️ Your post must be made directly from either your personal Reddit account profile or your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If you have a medical condition necessitating aid, on your behalf, you may appoint a publicist, manager, caretaker, helper, spouse, partner, friend, guardian, or family member to post from either your personal Reddit account profile or your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If your song is from a band, group, choir, orchestra, or duo brand, the post must be made directly from either from one of the members’ personal Reddit account profiles or from your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If your song is collaboration, the post must be made directly from either the lead’s personal Reddit account profile or from the lead’s brand Reddit account profile.
✔️ If you want another song to be a part of the contest from another brand identity you are involved with, the song must be posted by a Reddit account profile for that separate brand – or one of the brand collaborators’ personal Reddit account profile.
👩🏾‍🏫 Presentation at this musicorloseittv community:
Requirements:
✔️ You must post a link to the song at this musicorloseittv community by tapping “+” on smartphone or clicking “+Create a post” on desktop/laptop. You must select the “My Song” flair.
✔️ Your post must be done by the “Title & Link Share Only method.”
✔️ The song’s URL you provide must be of the standalone song upload - not part of a playlist URL link.
✔️ You may post an audio only upload URL link (such as an individual song published at SoundCloud or Bandcamp). Alternatively, you may post a music video link from a venue like YouTube.
✔️ You may include a smartlink for the individual song (not album or playlist) within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ You may title the post whatever you want within the community’s rules and the contest’s rules. Remember: no vague titles; limit post title emojis to no more than 2 (if you decide to use them); and don’t request feedback.
✔️ Your post title may be done in the style of “Entertainer - Song Tile” (or something similar). Alternatively, the post title may be more elaborate. For example: “This Is My Latest Song. It’s About A Wonderful Time I Fell In Love.”
✔️ In your posts’ body-text section or in a reply comment, optionally you may share details about the song that you feel the audience would enjoy knowing.
**📝 Needed information: **
Requirements:
✔️ Within either your posts’ body-text section or within a reply comment at your post, provide the following information – as is:
❇️ Contest entry for your consideration:
• Entertainer's Name - Song Title:
• Published on: [Insert date & year. Refers to date published at your URL link source]
• Genre:
• I am an independent creator unsigned I am signed to [insert label name]
• Interpolations/remixes/samplings disclosure: N/A this song contains authorized/licensed interpolations/remixes/samplings [specify] of another song released since 11/15 of the prior year in collaboration with other unsigned music creator(s)[specify]. The link to the original song is [insert URL link – publish date from URL link source must be visible].
• Al disclosure: N/A. A portion of this [song/artwork/music video] is created by Al. Explanation: [specify if this applies to song/artwork/music video].
• Copyright disclosure for song: I confirm I’m the copyright owner of all the contents of this song (lyrics and recording) as it is presented including the artwork [(if applicable) and music video]
Copyrighted content I am authorized/licensed to use commercially in the promotion of my song include: [insert details]
• [optional/voluntary] Confirmation of substantial human involvement: A real human substantially arranged/compose this music. [Note: This type disclosure is strongly encouraged by creators who use instrument sounds and beats from apps/software in substation of instruments played live at the time of recording. This is especially encouraged for music creators who do not show their face and/or don’t show themselves creating the music in a music video or behind the scenes video. For music fans opposed to music primarily created by AI, this type of disclosure can be helpful and assuring.]
• Lyrics: [insert URL link or embed URL link into “Lyrics” text] [note if the lyrics are available at the upload source] [only if you're the copyright owner of the lyrics, you may entirely include them] [type “vocalized” or “instrumental” if applicable]
Ineligible:
🚫 Uploads of songs to Reddit.
🚫 No engagement pleas disguised as feedback requests in post titles nor in your posts’ body-text section. No feedback requests.
**👨🏼‍⚖️ Copyright/trademark compliance: **
‣ Important note: Aforementioned rules already state you either must be the copyright owner of the content you enter for this contest or you must be authorized/licensed to commercially use the content by the copyright owner. Aforementioned rules already state you must disclose use of copyrighted, creative commons, or “free” material. Mods reserve the right to ask for additional proof for confirmation. Suspected violations will be removed at mod’s discretion. You are strongly encouraged to upload your best, newest, utmost original content.
‣ Resources:
U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright in General https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
What Musicians Should Know about Copyright by U.S. Copyright Office https://www.copyright.gov/engage/musicians
U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index by U.S. Copyright Office https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use
**🤝 Mutual Support **
Requirements:
✔️ You must be active in the musicorloseittv community regarding mutual support and engagement with other posts. You must post a comment reply to at least two other posts of any kind at the musicorloseittv community before the final day of the month. Failing to do so will result in disqualification.
Ineligible:
🚫 Posting then ghosting the community.
**😎👍 Encouraging fans to vote: **
Ineligible:
🚫 You are not allowed to ask for votes in anywhere in the musicorloseittv community’s comments section.
🚫 Music creators may not offer anything to anyone whatsoever in exchange for voting for them.
Allowed:
✔️ If you see a music fan has voted for you, you may thank them in a reply comment.
✔️ You may make social media posts at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads or your YouTube channel’s Community feed to encourage your fans to join this musicorloseittv subreddit community and vote for your song.
Example post:
My song “Song Title” is a finalist for Best Song Of The Month at the musicorloseittv community at Reddit. At [insert URL link] please vote for me and my song. Thank you.
**📜 Rules adherence: **
‣ Important note: If you are new to the musicorloseittv community as either a music fan voting or music creator entering the contest, latitude may be given as you get familiar here. It’s up to mod’s discretion.
‣ Important note: This contest is just for fun. Likewise playing boardgames or cards with friends is also just for fun yet people expect rules to be followed.
**🕊️ Truthfulness: **
Requirements:
✔️ Contestants and voters are expected to behave honorably and ethically.
Ineligible:
🚫 If anyone is ever discovered cheating or being dishonest akin to author James Frey or music entertainers Milli Vanilli, they will be disqualified and also likely be banned from this community.
Additional Info
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(this was completely written on mobile, so please bear with me)
scroll for tl;dr
I 18F recently graduated high school almost a week ago. My mother 37F and a few others showed up to the occasion to congratulate me for making it out of high school, but the one person I especially wanted to go to the occasion was my dad 34M. I had been telling him and his girlfriend, 26F, to please come to this event. I really wanted them to come cheer me on because I really cared what my dad had to think about his daughter crossing the stage, but he didn’t show up.
I had told him, numerous amount of times, about when it was, the date and time and when the day did come, he didn’t call, text, nothing, nada. So, I was rightfully hurt. Now, even almost a week later, I haven’t heard a word from him.
Now we get into some backstory, about 9mon ago, I had gotten kicked out of his house for a couple of problems that me and him had and I started staying with another family because mom didn’t live close by, but an event happened where I started having dinner at his house once a week. Even though he’s the adult, I’m the one driving out to eat dinner with his family, helping him and his girl when they need a free babysitter. All because I love my dad and his family.
Stepmom also got pregnant around the same time I got kicked out and sometimes I’ll forget to come over to dad’s house because I am a forgetful person. I missed a baby shower that no one had reminded me of and when I saw him next, he was upset that I missed their baby shower to be at my boyfriend’s (18M) house. I told him that I had forgotten and I was sorry and he started talking about how he thinks I’m making my boyfriend more important than my family (even though dad has showed that he has done the same thing before) We also had a problem a couple weeks ago where he was upset that I was taking my boyfriend around his family because, and I quote, “He’s some random n-word that I don’t know,” but Dad hasn’t made any move to meet my boyfriend in any situation. So how is he upset at this situation?
Anyways, recently I found out from my mom, not him, that she gave birth. This is where the AITA comes up. I figured, well since I’m not important enough to make it my graduation, his excuse as to why he might not show up was that he was at work and he had forgotten to call off so he didn’t know what time he was going to make it home even though we had life360 and it showed him home 30min before the ceremony ended, I’m not going to his dinner. Anyways, I guess that really annoyed him because he removed me from the life360 and STILL hasn’t spoken to me.
I told my mom about the situation and she told me to reach out to him and I told her that I am TIRED of reaching out when he is full well and capable of doing so and apologizing, but he hasn’t and until then I will not speak to him. She also said that she believes that the reason why he was so upset was because he wanted me to take my younger siblings home (their other children) as I am the designated driver every time they are over at the house and the drive is more than a hour to and from.
So Reddit, am I the a*shole?
tl;dr - AITA for not showing up to my dad’s weekly dinner because he missed my high school graduation?

1. Carlin had a big week of giggles and guffaws for the camera. She took an influencer trip to Skyland Ranch, used a Billie Eilish song on an IG reel of her children and then gaslit her audience into believing she and Evan have well known catchphrases “CrAAzy”, “Love, Bye” and “bruh”. They slapped these random words on hats and TShirts and people STOOD IN THE RAIN to buy them. I saw a grown azz man in a “BRUH” hat. Other wild things that happened at their Cash and Carry sale included someone taking pics of their kids in front of the Tesla, referring to the dresses as “she” and calling their vlog “vloggy”.I have cringed too much over all of it. Layla put on a full show for the camera at a nail salon AND the dance studio while Zade earned his keep wearing pretend high heel shoes. They wrapped it all up in a big terrible bow by featuring Hobby Lobby.
   
2. Whitney played second fiddle all week to Carlin… folding shirts, holding babies and modeling Temu dresses that they marked up 347%. Zach was back in the Bates Kitchen this week and decided the best way to get views was to bring in the kids so we got to watch Kacie mix and mess and poke around in cake mix and canned frosting to concoct cake pops. Then the grossest thing happened… ZACH BATES FARTED. During a COOKING SHOW. IN THE KITCHEN. I mean he ripped a big ole juicy poot and they all laughed and decided to air it and then they SOLD those dang FART POPS at the Cash and Carry sale. He also made some terrible Psychology jokes. I bet soon enough they will have “fart pops” on a hat for sale.
   
3. The Balka crowd were living it up this week in a 600$ a night beachfront condo that included a beach chair service. This family trip was really just a content mill and man did Josie churn it out. She is full on exploiting her children while drowning in a sea of beige. What has happened that she is suddenly, desperately pouring out content on every platform… did Kelton tell her she needed to make some money to pay for her Sephora habit OR is a product launch in the works? Our Fundie Kim K.is pushing links while living life through a gauzy filter featuring tinkly music.
   
4. Katie had to let Travis go on this fake tour, but not before she let all the groupies know that was her mans. Trav said he was only singing 3 or 4 songs at each show so tell me again why they moved from Jersey for THIS? Speaking of Jersey, the vlog featured just a blip of the Clark family and it looks like GiGi has been drowning her sorrows by remodeling at her house. Katie got them back to the hive as quickly as possible and spent her week with Carlin and co at the playground and pool.
   
5. Lydia is bored bc she is married to Trace. All of her photography skills are now used to take pics of sneakers, weights, water bottles and pickleball. This crew has been featuring Lydia’s family pretty heavily lately, including spending Mothers Day with them where they made small talk with Trace and pretended to like him. Trace spilled the beans that his parents gave away all the pets at the big house while simultaneously telling us that Lawson doesn’t take care of Duke bc he gets dropped off there at least once a month. Later they debuted 40 minutes of Trace painting Lydia’s face like it was a fence while mouth breathing. Lydia’s mom called to show her the pet emu eating cherries and that was the best darn thing they have shown us in months. More emu please-less Trace!
   
6. Michael and Brandon brought in the professionals this week and exploited Layla and Zade Stewart. Layla is as good as any second year stage student at this point… BUT Aunt Michael has rules so she had to slow her role. Brandon was excited to draw Layla a princess after 3 weeks of sharks and whales… honestly everything he draws sort of looks the same. They also went to Honea Path to see Poppa Bill and Momma Jane who was smiling that it wasn’t one of the grands with 18 kids.
   
7. Down in passive-aggressive land Alyssa Webster told the tale of how all FOUR of her girls were asked to be flower girls and how that had NEVER happened and how SPECIAL that was. After several posts exclaiming her undying devotion and love to “buddy” she showed off the bad 80’s prom dress she was given by that dress shop she promotes. If a flame came anywhere near her it would have been all she wrote for Mrs. Webster. That dress was awful… but not as bad as the one she was gifted from BSB(which she called “my sister’s boutique”). The vlog shows John being an absolute jerk while Alyssa sneers and snarls and tries very hard not to say that her Mother’s Day sucked. It did suck and in order to make it up to her, daddy Webster put on a button down shirt and took her to the Cheesecake Factory. After all of the slap happy crappy birthday parties and Christmases she has given her girls… she expected WHAT for Mother’s Day??
   
8. Lawson made an absolute fool of himself while revealing the worst kept secret ever… it’s a boy, yall. Michael and Brandon punished themselves by throwing the party and doing all of the work while Tiffy and Lawson preened for the camera and asked people over and over what their guess was. This was filmed on I Love You Day weekend at the IBLP leaders church so this is old, old footage aaand these people are all perfectly fine with what their dad does. Tiffy and Law made it a point to say there was a bigger crowd than was at their wedding. Tiffy cried after finding out she is carrying a little Lawson and Duke was nowhere to be found. I do think he congratulated them on IG though, so all is good.
   
9. Oh Erin… what a week you had. You got Momma and Daddy Bates all to yourself for Mothers Day and for Carson/Charles’ birthday. Gil and KJ also picked up a nice paycheck for speaking and preaching at the Paine’s new church. Even though Erin happily joined a church that prides itself on promoting the corporal punishment of children, she still put together a glowing reel for Carson/Charles’ special day that featured him down at it at his second job of brothermomming. Not one picture of herself with the child was included. Later Erin threw a free notebook in with her construction paper cards as an incentive to buy. Free paper for buying paper is super exciting, right?
   
10. Bits and Bytes… Jadon and Layla are the same height. The Utah photographer that Alyssa used is followed by ALL of the Bates. Everyone of these Trad Wives are now promoting Easy plants. Why can’t Zach have any closeups in his cooking videos? Jeb/Jud broke his arm.
    

Have a great week friends and… how many Baptists does it takes to change a lightbulb…. CHANGE?!? Who mentioned CHANGE!?🫠😜

1. Carlin had a big week of giggles and guffaws for the camera. She took an influencer trip to Skyland Ranch, used a Billie Eilish song on an IG reel of her children and then gaslit her audience into believing she and Evan have well known catchphrases “CrAAzy”, “Love, Bye” and “bruh”. They slapped these random words on hats and TShirts and people STOOD IN THE RAIN to buy them. I saw a grown azz man in a “BRUH” hat. Other wild things that happened at their Cash and Carry sale included someone taking pics of their kids in front of the Tesla, referring to the dresses as “she” and calling their vlog “vloggy”.I have cringed too much over all of it. Layla put on a full show for the camera at a nail salon AND the dance studio while Zade earned his keep wearing pretend high heel shoes. They wrapped it all up in a big terrible bow by featuring Hobby Lobby.
   
2. Whitney played second fiddle all week to Carlin… folding shirts, holding babies and modeling Temu dresses that they marked up 347%. Zach was back in the Bates Kitchen this week and decided the best way to get views was to bring in the kids so we got to watch Kacie mix and mess and poke around in cake mix and canned frosting to concoct cake pops. Then the grossest thing happened… ZACH BATES FARTED. During a COOKING SHOW. IN THE KITCHEN. I mean he ripped a big ole juicy poot and they all laughed and decided to air it and then they SOLD those dang FART POPS at the Cash and Carry sale. He also made some terrible Psychology jokes. I bet soon enough they will have “fart pops” on a hat for sale.
   
3. The Balka crowd were living it up this week in a 600$ a night beachfront condo that included a beach chair service. This family trip was really just a content mill and man did Josie churn it out. She is full on exploiting her children while drowning in a sea of beige. What has happened that she is suddenly, desperately pouring out content on every platform… did Kelton tell her she needed to make some money to pay for her Sephora habit OR is a product launch in the works? Our Fundie Kim K.is pushing links while living life through a gauzy filter featuring tinkly music.
   
4. Katie had to let Travis go on this fake tour, but not before she let all the groupies know that was her mans. Trav said he was only singing 3 or 4 songs at each show so tell me again why they moved from Jersey for THIS? Speaking of Jersey, the vlog featured just a blip of the Clark family and it looks like GiGi has been drowning her sorrows by remodeling at her house. Katie got them back to the hive as quickly as possible and spent her week with Carlin and co at the playground and pool.
   
5. Lydia is bored bc she is married to Trace. All of her photography skills are now used to take pics of sneakers, weights, water bottles and pickleball. This crew has been featuring Lydia’s family pretty heavily lately, including spending Mothers Day with them where they made small talk with Trace and pretended to like him. Trace spilled the beans that his parents gave away all the pets at the big house while simultaneously telling us that Lawson doesn’t take care of Duke bc he gets dropped off there at least once a month. Later they debuted 40 minutes of Trace painting Lydia’s face like it was a fence while mouth breathing. Lydia’s mom called to show her the pet emu eating cherries and that was the best darn thing they have shown us in months. More emu please-less Trace!
   
6. Michael and Brandon brought in the professionals this week and exploited Layla and Zade Stewart. Layla is as good as any second year stage student at this point… BUT Aunt Michael has rules so she had to slow her role. Brandon was excited to draw Layla a princess after 3 weeks of sharks and whales… honestly everything he draws sort of looks the same. They also went to Honea Path to see Poppa Bill and Momma Jane who was smiling that it wasn’t one of the grands with 18 kids.
   
7. Down in passive-aggressive land Alyssa Webster told the tale of how all FOUR of her girls were asked to be flower girls and how that had NEVER happened and how SPECIAL that was. After several posts exclaiming her undying devotion and love to “buddy” she showed off the bad 80’s prom dress she was given by that dress shop she promotes. If a flame came anywhere near her it would have been all she wrote for Mrs. Webster. That dress was awful… but not as bad as the one she was gifted from BSB(which she called “my sister’s boutique”). The vlog shows John being an absolute jerk while Alyssa sneers and snarls and tries very hard not to say that her Mother’s Day sucked. It did suck and in order to make it up to her, daddy Webster put on a button down shirt and took her to the Cheesecake Factory. After all of the slap happy crappy birthday parties and Christmases she has given her girls… she expected WHAT for Mother’s Day??
   
8. Lawson made an absolute fool of himself while revealing the worst kept secret ever… it’s a boy, yall. Michael and Brandon punished themselves by throwing the party and doing all of the work while Tiffy and Lawson preened for the camera and asked people over and over what their guess was. This was filmed on I Love You Day weekend at the IBLP leaders church so this is old, old footage aaand these people are all perfectly fine with what their dad does. Tiffy and Law made it a point to say there was a bigger crowd than was at their wedding. Tiffy cried after finding out she is carrying a little Lawson and Duke was nowhere to be found. I do think he congratulated them on IG though, so all is good.
   
9. Oh Erin… what a week you had. You got Momma and Daddy Bates all to yourself for Mothers Day and for Carson/Charles’ birthday. Gil and KJ also picked up a nice paycheck for speaking and preaching at the Paine’s new church. Even though Erin happily joined a church that prides itself on promoting the corporal punishment of children, she still put together a glowing reel for Carson/Charles’ special day that featured him down at it at his second job of brothermomming. Not one picture of herself with the child was included. Later Erin threw a free notebook in with her construction paper cards as an incentive to buy. Free paper for buying paper is super exciting, right?
   
10. Bits and Bytes… Jadon and Layla are the same height. The Utah photographer that Alyssa used is followed by ALL of the Bates. Everyone of these Trad Wives are now promoting Easy plants. Why can’t Zach have any closeups in his cooking videos? Jeb/Jud broke his arm.
    

Have a great week friends and… how many Baptists does it takes to change a lightbulb…. CHANGE?!? Who mentioned CHANGE!?🫠😜

I’m an expat working in UAE for almost 20 years now with multiple organizations. The one I currently work for is owned by a local and has a mix of people from just 2 religious backgrounds - Islam and Christianity.
I’m a born Christian and believe in mutual respect for other cultures and religions. I do believe that religion is a personal choice and not to believe in one is completely fine too.
Another’s Christian colleague of mine, barely a practicing Christian ( almost thought he was atheist) happens to be the most shrewd and untrustworthy colleague in the company and we all watch our backs when it comes to him as he’s been known to play silent politics around the office, often ready to throw others in front of a train to protect himself and his job.
Recently, he shocked us all and decided to convert to Islam. The company owner was ecstatic and announced this in an official manner to all of us starting that this is the most impotent and exciting news that he’s had the pleasure of giving us. :/
Receiving the news, the rest of the Muslims in my office were so excited and kept congratulating him. I understand normal excitement but, this was something else, something I’ve never experienced. All due respect to Islam and its culture, I honestly didn’t know how to react to this.
I’m happy for him if this is a path he has willingly chosen but it is so unlikely of him to not have some kinda strategy to this. He recently started dating a Muslim girl, equally as vile and untrustworthy as him. (A psychotic power couple I’d you ask me)
What’s the real deal with such conversions in uae ? Is it really such a big deal? Do converts from other religions get some additional benefits from the rest of us when they convert?
The level of reaction from the company owner and my other Muslim colleagues has really spiked my interest in what’s the real meaning to this considering this specific colleague was ideally always been a distrustful and vile example is a human being and we didn’t see this coming.
What are your thoughts on this? Tbh I hope he decides to be a better human

She emailed him to tell him she got a promotion and he responded congratulations a few days ago. He also stayed after work last week for an hour to have a “closure” conversation after ending it 4 months ago because it was the first time they saw each other in person since ending it over text. When she responded to his congratulations email a few days later she said they may be staying at the same Hotel for a meeting and she wanted to catch him up in the lobby on the new promotion, I made him tell her this was a work email and to not reach out in person or via work/personal communication again. For the first time she didn’t seem upset and just responded with an apology and thanked him for his help. Why would he even respond to begin with or stay to talk to her? It stresses me out every time she finds a way to contact him. She is beautiful. I feel like he should not respond ever even if he adds at the end they can’t be in contact. We changed his number. Deleted his social media.

hi, i am 42 and i feel all i have in my life is my job and my parents of whom i live with.
i have no children or family or my own, and this failing has been eating away at me. tried to do something about it but nothing availed (career? string of dead end jobs. women? never reply or can ever get close to on a personal level). after my grandmum died a few weeks ago i really do begin to feel the clock ticking and this anxiety and worry, i dont know if thats a midlife crisis.
all i know, this is not just an episode of being 'down in the dumps'. its been something i feel its been growing inside me for years - not in my head, but feeling it from my gut. i'm starting to feel it interrupting my job. my get up and go has got up has gone. i just dont feel like working even though the rational part of me forces myself to just do it. i dont know if i have depression but lately i am in this state where i just dont feel like doing anything and i am just unhappy.
i used to be a gamer in my 30s as a hobby, but i havent even touched my ps5 for over 6 months. i've sold all my games. i just lost the will to play.
i have been seeing a counsellor for 11 years in trying to 'get help' (as everyone keeps saying) but i feel its done hardly anything for me. she has aspired me to do travelling to get out my comfort zone and meet people, which i have done. but thats it. even travelling is becoming meaningless now because i am constantly in this state of preoccupation. i know after a big holiday i'll never see those people again even if they add me on facebook or not (and when they don't, it hurts).
people say talk to friends and family. i have no real friends. never have. when i was a little boy in school, i was bullied. in secondary school i got focused on my studies thinking that eventually, a degree would unlock a life of fabulous riches. but i eventually learned the hard way with years of unemployment that it wasnt, back then. i tried reaching out to people, online via a facebook group, but it descended to insults and hurtful remarks that left me banned and made me punched the wall. my family doesnt know about my feelings, becaise from what i have seen, mental health is seen as taboo. they'll just admonish me, shout me down, tell me to get a grip. i cant really talk to them because they're going to deny theres a problem. and i dont want to break their hearts, especially my parents. i rather soak the pain than bring them in it. i love them too much to see them feel hurt for me.
social groups - when going out, if its not work or a family function, i largely have social anxiety. i so badly want to meet women and get a girlfriend, who hopefully becomes my wife and eventual mother to my kids and form my new family, but i just seem incapable of it. i just cant get close to a woman at that personal and intimate level. if i try, it results in failure and embarassment. at the rare times i did try, it just doesnt come out right. i once went to salsa dancing class in a big city nearby, trying to talk to women, but the anxiety was so overwhelming, i couldnt breathe, and thought i was going to have a heart attack, i had to get out of there. i never been back since. i dont even go to pubs. i think about women more and more - even women i wasnt attracted to at first, drives me crazy now. i remember when leaving a job to move to another, a lady colleague i worked alot with hugged me, and it felt unlike anything i felt before. it was amazing. the softness, the warmth, the care...its as if i was missing that my whole life. i was close to crying. i want to experience true closeness, and intimacy.
thats not to say i'm a virgin. i lost my virginity at 30 to an escort; that was a unsatisfying experience as even then i had anxiety and couldnt perform properly - i did it because i didnt wanted to be the '30 year old virgin'. i just cant seem to get close with women. i tend to obsess about them. my instagram feed is full of attractive women. seeing beautiful ones on tv, even if its just the weather girl or news reader, it drives me nuts. in my job, i work with journalists, and theres many women there. i can talk to them confidently and easily, IF ITS ABOUT WORK. the instances i tried to talk about life in trying to get to know them and get close to them, the barrier goes up. i can tell because they wont add me on fb or whatever. i just cant seem to hack it with women. no woman = no wife = no mother to my children = no family of my own = no legacy.
i appreciate some might say not having family should not mean one is a failure. however, as much as i tried to ignore it, i come from a culture whereby family trumps everything else - money, career, hobbies, everything. i been ignoring it for years. trying to chase a career, which ended up as a string of dead end temporary jobs. losing 15 years of my life to this, living from temp job to temp job, and going to over 200 job interviews in getting secure employment, enduring hundreds of devastating rejections. but, years later, i now have at least job security, which is most important, but am beginning to feel the limit of my pay. trying to chase a career, spending nights throughout the 2010s playing video games and enjoying my gaming career in that, playing adventure games...but now i have reached a point where i've 'run out' of games to play and nothing (except maybe gta6) will interest me in picking up a controller again. i've grown out of it, it seems. i even been travelling more too - i travel far, and so big holidays. from usa, to africa, to europe, to india, and soon to be going to australia... doing all sorts of holidays from cruises, ranch holidays, safari, hiking, group road trips, wildlife conservation volunteering, sailing the mediterrarian - grand, amazing experiences that does suspend my worries... but in the end, i keep coming back to them, this feeling of emptiness.
my big fear is seeing my parents get older and dying from a broken heart caused by me. my dad worked in construction but is retired and now freelances, and he tends to hurt himself in accidents as he gets clumsy. my mother works in a school. i have always lived with my family except during the years i was at university. i feel my mum and dad are my 'best friends' - sad as it sounds -and the thought of them both going to die somepoint in the future, fills me with dread. because i feel i have failed them, in not continuing the family line. failing to secure a legacy for us. to keep us all going, surviving through the next generation. when i think about it deeply, our bloodline has been passed down for thousands of years, surviving through all sorts such as wars, plagues, and revolutions. i feel compelled to continue it, as if its a duty, and i dont want my parents to die with their last thoughts being disappointment. i can see it in my dads eyes already, the sadness. he wants to play with his grandchildren, but he has none, and all his friends shows off their grandkids. similarly with me, i see people i went to school with, and ex-colleagues i used to work with...they all have kids and a house of their own and a car. i have none of that. i stand NO chance buying a house of my own as i simply can't afford it, and renting will be throwing my money away living on other peoples crap. i said to my parents i want to inherit this home when they go, because my memories are here. my history. our family memories. my happy childhood memories, growing up, the birthdays, playing with my brother, my parents, the fun times growing up, coming back from school, doing homework, watching football together on the TV in the 90s, our first pc, all of it. all of these amazing experiences back then, i love to go through again, but this time with my own kids, seeing them grow up, playing with toys, drawing, having a first pet, etc...to navigate life with them as a father, and teaching them what i believe is required to be a good person.
before you say it, i'm not just doing it for my parents. i want a family for myself. i feel if i failed to have children, failed to find someone who loves me, failed to have any friends, failed to have had any influence or imprint on the world nomatter how small - i actually feel i'm not part of this world. to quote ellie from the last of us, my life would not have 'fkn mattered'. its as if i am a 'watcher', if that makes sense, not part of the fabric of this world and civilisation. watching it all from a window. that'll lead me to questions like why i am i here, leading to a probable, and painful, full-on existential crisis. when its my parents' time, when they grow old and die, and if i'm left all alone, i dont think i'd want to live anymore. i'm praying to find something. of course, i know i have to DO something, but my mind draws a blank. i cant ignore what my body is telling me anymore. but then, i step outside the house, and i dont know what to do, socially. when i approach someone, i get anxiety attacks. in my town, people are aggressive - its also possible if i approach a woman here i might end up getting assaulted, shouted at or shamed. sometimes theres no place to really go as i live in a small town. and as you get older, its harder to make friends, as people already have their established circles. i even remember my ex-manager talking to colleagues about this when we had a drink once and she asked 'how do you meet people' even though shes in her 50s and has established family and friends - indeed. how, for those who do not.
for coping, some people elsewhere suggested exercising. this is something i tend to do, but perhaps not enough of. i like to go on walks. theres a public park where i go and feed the ducks. seeing animals makes me happy. when the baby ducks swim to me wanting the kibble food it makes me feel wanted. i love animals. from dogs, cats and ducks - to even wild animals like the tigers i saw in india. i also did some hiking holidays, including going through some american national parks like yosemite, where i saw a family of bears at a distance. travelling is something i like to do too - in fact, i have more 'big' holidays coming up in usa again (alaska this summer), then australia, europe (croatia), the canadian rockies and maybe south america. i do these trips to get that out-of-body, 'blown away' feeling, of being thrilled, alive, and enjoying and experiencing life. it does help. but travelling is expensive. i'm not made of money.
all i want, is my own family..

Hope this isnt too abstract but there's something I've always wondered and I'm hoping you guys may help me figure it out.
There's a phrase I've used in the past to articulate a certain look on a man - "he looks expensive" - but I've never really been able to pinpoint how i define it, nor what the X factor is. I was wondering if you guys could share your thoughts.
This is something I've seen time and time again - particuarly in the workplace. Suddenly, seemingly without any additional effort going into their grooming, a newly promoted colleague goes from normal looking guy to seeming "expensive".
It's the same look you see a lot of top CEOs have. They dont appear to spend hours every day grooming themselves into oblivion, yet they always "look expensive" - almost like they know exactly how to get the maximum out of their appearance with the most minimal effort.
I've done lots of grooming myself (sometimes overdone it with all sorts of creams and whatnot, taking forver) and always ensure i have properly fitting clothes - but i never quite pull of that look.
And just to further define it; expensive does not mean flashy to me. Often quite the opposite
There's a couple of examples that spring to mind:
1) a former boss gets a promotion to a much more senior role. We dont see him for a couple of months but when we do he suddenly "looks expensive" - he just looks different; richer, healthier, sharper, more powerful and more "grown up". I looked at him and he doesnt appear to have done anything significant to his appearance - same haircut, same weight, same clothes etc... only now it's all just somehow flawless with nothing out of place. What has happened here?
. 2) i am at a convention and a well known person in my industry is on the stage. He's wearing a nondescript dark suit over a dark t shirt, with sneakers - but something about him just "looks expensive" - almost like he's glowing while surrounded by people who dont. I looked up photos after the event and the "expensiveness" just doesnt translate into still images - he just looks like a normal guy in the photos, not heavily groomed. But IRL he looked like a movie star.
. 3) Company away weekend so we're all wearing what we packed. Heavy, late night of drinking, including our COO. We all come down next morning in various states of dischevellment. He comes down looking pristine. He's had no more sleep, he's no less hungover, he's wearing a shirt and chinos that travelled in a suitcase just like the rest of us, yet to anyone looking theyd think he's had a solid 12 hours sleep and a morning at a health spa, before spending an hour grooming before coming down to see us.
What's going on???

I apologize for any mistakes in advance, English is not my first language, but I hope I was clear enough (Not real names)
I've known my friend Luna since we were 12yo, we met at school and I made several friends from her because she is very outgoing, among them Amanda(23F), Amanda and Luna were best friends since kindergarten, so they know each other better than me... Luna comes from a very conservative family but is also lgbt+ so despite being bisexual she has never been with girls, cause she knows her family would not accept it. In 2018 Amanda told me that Luna said that she liked me and wanted me to give her a chance but I don't like receiving statements like that LOL and I didn't want to ruin our friendship so I pretended I never heard that and Luna never said it or pretended she never said anything When we were 18yo Amanda came out as lesbian and in 2019 Luna starts her 6th abusive relationship with a boy, the longest btw, 11 months
Last year Luna sent to us a message saying that she was going to marry boyfriend number 7, Amanda and I congratulated her and after a few months she asked me to be godmother, I didn't expect it, and she said not to tell Amanda, cause she can't have the two of us Later I discovered that their family was paying for a large part of the wedding and we were the only two of her friends invited, the rest of the party was made up of work colleagues and family members from both sides
Last week was the bridesmaids' meeting and I arrived a few hours early, so I ended up seeing the groom for the first time, they were baking a cake and the oven was bad so she told him to watch and he took the RAW cake out of the oven so we told him that the cake was raw and put it back in the oven and after that he took the raw cake out of the oven 3 times until we gave up on the cake and he left During the party he came back and we had a circle to give advice to the couple and he sat in the middle of Luna and his own sister (13f) and held hands with both of them, Luna was uncomfortable and let go of his hand and then he sat on the other side, sister's side, leaving Luna alone Then they went to sing and Luna was out of tune so he and his sister started laughing and Luna said "when you sing better than me, you can laugh" At the end of the party, when they were deciding how they would dress for a photoshoot today, she said she wasn't going to get all dressed up for him to arrive like a rag, he asked me how I did my hair before I could explain Luna started to tell him that his hair was ugly, that there was no solution, that he was ugly, that he wouldn't fix himself...
After that they went to the bedroom to argue, then they argued in the kitchen with her mother present and then he left and she told her father what happened... I talked to her mother afterwards and she says this happens all the time, they take out a lot of stress on each other
The problem is, they got married very quickly, they haven't even been dating for 6 months, and they have already paid 1 year of rent on a house together!!! Their family talks all the time about children and their aunt blessed their room, I think they had a celibate relationship, idk
After everything I started to think that she asked me to be godmother because I wouldn't question her decision and not because her first best friend is a lesbian in a relationship of almost 2 years, Amanda would have said something at the time regardless of whether she was asked or not But when I asked a friend about it she said that I was jealous because Luna didn't like me anymore and that I shouldn't get involved in her relationship, regardless of whether I thought it was bad or not I don't want them to break up and she dates me, I just don't want her to get into the seventh unsuspecting abusive relationship, the other times I barely saw the guys and didn't notice anything, but this time I saw...
Should I talk to her? Should I talk to Amanda? How do I approach this? should I talk at all?

On Meibomian Gland Probing and its potential dangers,
I frequently see people posting about their meibomian gland probing worries. Top professionals usually charge exponentially more than others. Given that the procedure is intuitively terrifying, many end up spending +10k USD on the treatment. Finding myself in the exact same spot, I decided to investigate the literature on meibomian probing and see if I could find a significant percentage of adverse effects.
I could not. Meibomian Gland Probing, in +95% of the currently available studies, seems to have an essentially zero percent rate of adverse effects. Furthermore, after reviewing hundreds of MGP-related posts on FB groups and subreddits, I could not find more than two separated cases complaining of mild adverse effects. On his 2020 book, MGP creator Steven Maskin explains that meibomian glands are actually pretty flexible and resilient (I am too lazy to quote and rest assured that his explanation is more thorough.) But you don't have to trust Maskin nor read all the papers I read. It's suficcient for you to internalize that this 2020 extensive review presenting a rather unoptimistic view on the benefits of MGP (which, as Maskin points out in his response00059-X/fulltext?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2dm9gsk83qGQN26eJjuehtfFviJXAv80bLQelB0xF07wsmRuVokPw8s-M_aem_AeO1Ec08N8TPhAgtHOgKRmy85LokKwXJcClJTdyfdX54WYxT3HZpcp-dkR0kEpIokmLV5wJoNR-rkZ1qF3v90FAe), may have been motivated by the authors' financial ties with the IPL and LipiFlow companies ), found "no reported major postoperative complications" in the FOURTEEN studies they analyzed.
Let that sink in. In fourteen studies with, let's say, an average of twenty patients that in turn had an average of three lids probed (t= 840 lids probed) not A SINGLE significant postoperative complication was reported. None. Zero. "Oh," you must say. "So there are plenty of mild to moderate negative effects!" Nope. The review could not find any worth mentioning (and neither could I).
Let me finish by saying that I am aware of the many people promoting Maskin and his procedures on different outlets. Maskin minions, they sometimes call them. Just to clarify, I am not one of them. I live in Paraguay and started my research a week ago because I've decided that enough is enough and that I am fixing my condition. Also, I don't like to spend stupid money. I was personally going to spend hard-earned $3,000 to see Dr. Taji in Canada. Fear of significant gland damage or other adverse effects were the main deterrants preventing me from opting for cheaper options. After reviewing the studies, I think an adverse result is extremely, extremely unlikely.
Hopefully this information and very simple reasoning is useful to some of you. If you find a flaw in my post, please, point it out, so I can improve my thinking. Salute. And I hope we all get better.
P.S.: any fellow latinamerican sufferer who wants to travel to Brazil with me to get MGP? Two are better than one!

I still remember my first day at the company. Roger, my boss, appointed me to my office in person, where he explained my tasks to me. They were pretty simple, all I had to do was order some files, print more files and order them too, fix the mistakes my colleagues made and under no circumstances should I ever press the bright red button right in the middle of my desk. Easy, I thought, how hard could it be?
Very hard. It was one of the worst jobs I ever slaved away at, which is why I felt relieved when Roger called me to his office after work yesterday. I had been waiting for a promotion for the past five years, and it seemed like yesterday it would finally be time for me to climb the corporate ladder. That day, I entered the building with my head held high, I hadn’t been this confident since 2013. My heart beat like crazy as I entered Roger’s office.
With a serious tone, he said, “take a seat, Jefferson.”
Taken aback by his stern look, I sat down on the chair in front of me. Before I could open my mouth to ask why he called me in today, he had already begun speaking again. The words that came out of his mouth were not what I expected at all.
“Randy, you’re fired. You have until tomorrow to pack your stuff and leave.”
I tried asking him what this was all about, but Roger refused to elaborate. I left his office like a puppy that had just been scolded. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined. My boss didn’t even bother explaining the reason I was laid off, which pissed me off greatly. That evening, I left the office with the worst mood I ever had.
This brings me to today, the last day I will ever see the desk I had grown to love/hate over the years. As I looked at it one last time, my mind was flushed with fond and not so fond memories of my time spent working here. I smiled when I glanced at the little bobblehead dog in the corner of my desk and cringed a little when I saw the dozens of folders I had yet to classify (before I got fired). But the thing that made me think the most was the red button, still sitting there, smack dab in the middle of my desk. Why would they even place such a thing on an office desk, let alone in the middle? The thing had annoyed me as long as I worked here, but I was never able to do anything about it. All I had to do was accept its existence and leave it alone, or as Roger once said:
“Never, under no circumstances at all, should you press this button. Never. Do you understand?”
As I remembered his words, I remembered the night I spent wondering what the button did, why I couldn’t press it and why they would put such an important button on a random dude’s desk. As long as I worked here, I was never allowed to touch it or even look at it for too long. But I didn’t work here anymore, so it was finally time, I would finally press the button!
*click*
Nothing happened. The button didn't do anything. All those years I spent safeguarding the button and wondering about its function were for naught. Disappointed, I took my stuff and walked towards the elevator. That’s when the entire building exploded.

My girlfriend has recently finished university and is currently working full time while she looks for a job in the sector she would like a career in. The place she works has a small team of around 7 people. She recently got a promotion which she was happy about.
She has to shadow another member of the team who does the same job she will be doing. They get on well but she's mentioned that other people at work have commented on him liking her and saying they seem like a couple.
She also mentioned that he spend a lot of time complaining to her about his girlfriend and his relationship. According to my girlfriend she's the only one he complains about his girlfriend to. He also refuses to invite her to work events where peoples partners are invited.
They have each other on social media and will message a bit outside of work. It started sounding like he was getting too close so I told my girlfriend I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable since it looks like he's clearly interested in her and other people are picking up on it.
She asked what I wanted to do and I said to just maybe remind him to keep things professional and not to message as much outside of work possibly and then when she's not shadowing him to maybe put some distance between them so he doesn't get the wrong idea and to make sure things remain professional.
She got annoyed and said no and that she shouldn't have to do any of that since nothing is happening between them. I said I know that but I don't really want it to get to the point where he tries anything with her. She accused me of not trusting her which I told her was not true. She told me to keep out of it and that I was out of order for telling her how to act around a colleague.
AIW for voicing my concerns about my girlfriends colleague?

🪞
Welcome back to the Asylum write-up, where we explore the decade-long slow-motion car crash that is the Emilie Autumn fandom.
Sorry this installment took so long to upload! Just a heads-up, I may take some time to deliver the last one too – these posts take forever to format on Reddit's finicky-ass editor, and my dumb real life is currently keeping me from precious Internet time. Thank you for your patience! You have my word that everyone who pre-ordered the final installment will receive a PERSONAL, HANDWRITTEN letter autographed and illustrated by me, a list of the snacks I consumed while composing this write-up, some exclusive behind-the-scenes secrets, and a pony.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4.1 – Part 4.2 Part 5

Places, everyone This is a test Throw your stones Do your damage Your worst, and your best (...) And if I had a dollar For every time I repented the sin And commit the same crime I'd be sitting on top of the world today (“God Help Me”, 2006🎵)

Quick recap of where we left off. First, there were five to ten halcyon years of pleasant and meaningful interactions between EA and her blossoming fanbase, prominently by way of her official forum. Then, circa 2009-2010, EA's online presence shifted towards sudden anger outbursts, ban-hammering, and an increasingly top-down communication style.
This created a sort of primordial rift within the fanbase, between those who supported EA's right to speak her mind and regulate her own fan spaces however she pleased – and those who thought that her reactions were rude and inappropriate (at best), and that even fan spaces should allow for reasonable, non-abusive criticism of the artist.
Between a poorly-handled book release (see Part 3), the controversial (Part 2) or dubiously true (Part 4) contents of said book, and serious shade from various former collaborators (Part 5), more and more fans had pressing thoughts about EA's work ethic and choices. EA attempted damage control through drastic forum rules that made it virtually impossible to voice any “serious” critical opinion. It didn't work, of course: instead of squashing the mutiny, she created a schism.
Critical fans and active haters started congregating on unofficial platforms.

“WITH MUFFINS LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?”: TROLL LIKE A GIRL

So here we were, the early 2010s. The official forum (which had about 700 members in 2006, if you recall) was now thousands-strong, reaching just over 12,000 registered users in 2012 – not all of them active, but still. In terms of sheer numbers and content creation, the party was POPPIN'... but increasingly in parts of the Asylum that escaped EA's jurisdiction, such as Tumblr, where they could speak their mind freely.

You play the victim very well You've built your self-indulgent hell You wanted someone to understand you Well, be careful what you wish for, because I do (“I Know Where You Sleep”, 2006🎵)

In one wing of Asylum Tumblr, a smattering of call-out blogs emerged, which laid out EA's various lies, faux pas, shitty takes, and general deep-seated terribleness in detailed timelines and screenshots (or, short of that, long-winded bullet points). While many such blogs framed it as “serious” whistleblowing and did their best to remain as fact-based and neutral as they could, there was some genuine disgust, animosity and creepiness towards EA on that side of Tumblr; for some ex-fans, “exposing the truth” was mostly justify obsessive hatred, prying and verbal abuse. Some, for instance, felt the bizarre need to side with EA's mother in their estrangement. (One user, with the URL “emilyautumnfischkopf”, argued in a serious and down-to-earth tone - but with zero sources - that EA's upbringing had been nothing but peaceful and supportive until she ungratefully kicked her loving family to the curb for no reason at all. They were later revealed 🔍 to have an alternate handle as “eaisalyingcunt”.)
Either way, through these blogs, a number of potential drama bombs that had mostly flown under the radar were dredged up from over the years – some of which were hard to ignore, even for supportive fans. Where to begin?
There was that nonsense in-joke song, captured twice on camera during the 2009 tour (to very little outrage, at the time), crassly called “Manatee Retard”📺. Or EA's scathing response, in print, to a wheelchair user who found it insensitive that she used a bedazzled wheelchair as a prop to do sexy acrobatics on stage. (“Your offence taken at my hard-won self-acceptance proves that I indeed have something to fight against”, she wrote). Spoken word tracks where she made trivializing knock-knock jokes about serious mental illnesses she didn't have, like schizophrenia and OCD. Multiple instances of calling Britney Spears a “bimbo” and a “Hollywood fucked-up”, resentfully claiming that she only shaved her head because she was “hopped up on drugs” and certainly not because she was “bipolar”, a word the press liked to wield as an insult anyway. (“That's almost like calling someone a retard!” Yeah, heaven forbid.) The meanest, most distasteful paragraphs in the book. Basically everything problematic EA had ever said or written.📝 In retrospect, it had been a long time coming, but it was a lot to take in – and certainly more off-putting, even to less emotionally invested fans, than silly lies about her age and last name.
In another wing of Asylum Tumblr, some fans had had it up to here and just wanted to have fun. 🎵 If Plague Rats had learned one valuable lesson from EA, it was how to crack a joke in the face of absurd tragedy – and the general state of the EA fandom certainly warranted a few.
In 2012, Fight Like a Girl was released. After six long years, three of which had been peaceful, the Opheliac era was officially over. The new album and ensuing tour confirmed that the Asylum had entered a process of glamorous Broadway-style militarization. 🎵📺
The mood board was “Roman general meets Vegas showgirl meets Victorian street urchin”.🪞 The color palette was, to naysayers, “musty pink and rotten, stale piss yellow”. 🐀 The keyword was “REVENGE” (through the power of... self-expression! sorority! brutal assault with rusty medical implements!). The chorus of the title song had an intriguing run-on line about getting “revenge on the world, or at least 49% of the people in it” 🎵 – which seemed like an awful lot, and was widely interpreted (to cheers, boos, or uncomfortable sighs) as a misandrist jab at literally all men on Earth.
The show was essentially a demo version of the musical, in that the setlist vaguely reflected the order of events in the story – but prior reading was essential in order to get what the hell was going on on stage. This one Broadway reviewer had not perused the literature before seeing the show 🔍, and hated: the set, the choreography, the skits, the plot, the lyrics, the music, the concept. (Seriously, you should read the review. It's not even my show and I feel like quitting show business.)
Pre-show VIP encounters, now violin-free, were lorded over by EA's new manager🐀, whose official title was “Asylum Headmistress”. (Interesting choice – she sounds fun!) The swag bags were less substantial than before, and the “greet” part of the meet-and-greet was rarely more than a quick hug and photo op.
On Twitter, EA continued to embrace her “I am very badass” fronting attitude...

Often wonder if cyberbullies r aware they’re fucking w/ a girl who’s BFs w/ maker of the SAW films & is marrying a knife-throwing scorpion. (🐀📝)

...and her taste for needlessly inflammatory statements. About an aisle sign in a supermarket:

If this does not infuriate you, then you're a fucking potato.

(Again with the confounding crypto-ableism, EA! 🔍) She also went through a phase of raging against Lady Gaga 📝, who had stolen her idea of using a wheelchair on stage as an able-bodied woman. 🔍 That failed to convince anyone that she wasn't the histrionic diva that haters made her out to be.
Spurred on by EA's rallying cries and “us vs them” mentality, loyalists turned the white-knighting up to 11. On Twitter, some Plague Rats got into cat fights with Lady Gaga's Little Monsters (what a time to be alive). Others tried to balance out the Tumblr negativity with initiatives like “Spreading a Plague of Love” – a “positive-only” confession blog, whose extreme fangirling, comically drastic rules and hyper-defensive tone📝 did not debunk the increasingly popular notion that “true Plague Rats” were a bunch of authoritarian and hopelessly brainwashed fanatics.
EA truthers and other anti-fans started lashing out at anyone who dared express any positive opinion of EA, solidifying claims that the backlash against EA was just a conspiracy of bitter, hysterical bullies.
All this to say: every passing day brought new reasons for fans to get mad at EA and each other, and everyone in the Asylum was in need of a laugh. It's not easy having a good time.🦠
Leading up to Fight Like a Girl and in the years that followed, user-submission-based meme blogs took off, most notably “Spreading a Plague of Lulz / Troll Like a Girl”. A lot of the early submissions were absurdist humor and toothless, cheezburger-Impact memes (a style that was, oddly, already dated at the time). Those often originated in good fun, and from loyal fans, on the official forum. But there was also true snark, satirizing EA's questionable ethics, outrageous claims, and easily spoofed artistic gimmicks. A new slang of Asylumspeak emerged: Glittertits (slight NSFW), GAGA!!, EA Gusta and all its memeface variants, Get outta mah house!, Are You Suffering?, Fight Like A Goat, [Random celebrity] copied EA (a subgenre in its own right), ...
Most of the “trolling” was directed at unrepentant bootlickers and, to a lesser extent, red-in-the-face haters and creeps. Meme blogs would post joke comments under “serious” or gushing submissions on Wayward Victorian Confessions, and taunt loyalist accounts by tagging them in their posts. When a few people complained on WVC that almost all of the Bloody Crumpets to date had been thin white able-bodied women, and a few fans responded by sharing their dream-casts for a more diverse line-up, the blog was flooded for days with confessions that “X should be a Crumpet” (candidates included RuPaul, Mitt Romney, Nicki Minaj, EA's therapist, and the WVC admins). Farcical shenanigans like that.
Ah, but some people will always cross the line, won't they. EA threads popped up on merciless, bully-friendly snark platforms like Lolcow, Pretty Ugly Little Liar, and Encyclopedia Dramatica. Snarkers with a mean streak and obsessive haters mingled in some of the more aggressive, 4-chan-spirited retaliation against EA – which would be called “brigading” in modern parlance. This included flooding EA's Goodreads page with one-star reviews (see part 4), repeatedly editing her Wikipedia page to include her legal name and birth year, and ensuring that Googling said name would bring up current pictures of her.
All of this compounded agitation fragmented the once-united fandom beyond recognition.🦠 Through substantial disagreements among fans, personal bickerings, layers upon layers of inscrutable in-jokes, and cross-platform telephone games, the Asylum morphed into a booby-trapped Escher room.
Satire blogs were taken in earnest. Earnest fan blogs scanned as satire. Memes would get called out as abuse. Appreciation without attached criticism would get mocked as bootlicking. Obvious jokes made by EA would be taken at face value. One divisive confession could trigger days and days of debate, to the point that WVC eventually banned confessions in response to other confessions. New waves of infighting created a confusing web of rival sub-factions🐀, each accusing the others of being toxic, cliquish, and delusional.
The shared fantasy was broken, the collective vision had crumbled, no onez was speaking the same language anymore. Fans would jump down the throat of other fans who held almost identical views about EA, except for that one thing she said or did that one time. Everyone had differing thoughts on what should or shouldn't acceptable to discuss, question, excuse, make fun of.
War is hell.

SCORCHED EARTH SHENANIGANS: HONEY, I SHRUNK THE ASYLUM

Would you tear my castle down Stone by stone And let the wind run through my windows Till there was nothing left But a battered rose? (“Castle Down”, 2003🎵)

Haters vs sycophants is not really the kind of conflict where one side can come out on top (if you're participating, you've already lost). But in the long tug-of-war between “grassroots” and “EA-sponsored” fan spaces, the ultimate winner is obvious – in that the former is gasping in agony, a shriveled husk of its former glory, while the latter... is non-existent. This is due in no small part to EA's tendency, like the Czars of old, to settle conflicts by setting Moscow on fire.🔍)
That's not entirely fair: unlike EA, the czar only did it that once.
By early 2013, as EA was gearing up for her third Fight Like a Girl tour at the end of the year, the official forum was... not as lively as it once had been. Not just because of the stifling rules and disgruntlement towards EA, or because EA herself hadn't really posted anything on there in years; the Internet was also changing, and forums in general were fast becoming passé.
This made it difficult for EA to create a safe space where she could talk to fans, and fans could talk to and about her, in a way she deemed suitable (ie, a space she could gate-keep and regulate enough to keep it completely free from negative criticism). Social media was a minefield; she still posted regularly, but didn't interact very much. So EA and the Headmistress came up with a way to filter out the unbelievers: an official fan club📝, aptly called the “Asylum Army”, with a $100 entry price.
Joining the AA came with a dog tag, a sew-on patch, and a lifetime membership certificate signed by EA and – for some reason – the Headmistress. (Unlike EA's best friend and sound engineer back in the forum's heyday, I don't think fans ever really embraced the FLAG-era manager as part of the Asylum in-group. She came across more as a coordinator / businessperson / adult chaperone, at best.🐀) So, slightly better goodies than you'd get by joining the other AA 🔍 ... but not by much. The main appeal was that members would have access to exclusive content, special merch, giveaways, early bird tickets for future shows, and regular video chats with EA.
The concept itself drew a fair amount of criticism, as you can imagine. Between the name🐀, the price, and the inherent gatekeeping of a pay-to-join fanclub, many balked at the monetizing of a concept that had once (like, three years back) been significantly more DIY, grassroots, and inclusive. 📝🐀
Then again, many also longed for a positive, drama-free space where fans could just be fans. And while the creation of the AA was generally recognized as a quick cashgrab, a lot of people were surprisingly cool with it. EA was trying to finance her dream musical, after all – although a number of fans wished she had gone about raising funds in a less sketchy way.
So around 400 fans shelled out (which, according to the Headmistress📝, “basically cover[ed] the cost of running the fanclub itself – keeping the database up, website, etc.”). Enough for a close-knit, but sizable community. But already, there was a conflict of interest: a high fanclub entry fee essentially demands that you pledge loyalty to the artist over loyalty to your fellow fans, who wish to join but can't afford to. Sharing, caring, and ensuring no one felt left out were some of the more positive values cultivated in the fandom... but leaking exclusive content would surely piss off other paying members🐀, and make EA feel betrayed all over again. (And she had barely just started to mellow out on social media!)
...But then again, this is the internet. After the first month of secret AA drops (lyric sheets, some photoshoot outtakes – nothing too juicy, really), there were, yes, some leaks. EA was predictably miffed, and retaliated by... ghosting the fanclub for weeks at a time in its first few months of existence (great look!). She eventually found the “solution” to her problem, by providing something you couldn't right-click-save (and which had been part of the promised perks to begin with): live interaction.
Over webcam, she was her usual in-person bubbly, charming, funny self. Everyone seemingly had a good time during the fanclub video chat, and this gave people faith and hope.
There were a few more events, giveaways, etc. As promised, ahead of the fall 2013 tour (the last one to date, it would turn out), AA members got priority access to show tickets and VIP bundles. The latter were much pricier than before, and only included soundcheck, a photo-op, and three goodies: a tin of loose-leaf tea, a signed printer-paper setlist, and a small flag that said “F.L.A.G.”.🔍 Some stuff continued to leak – but, as some of the outlaws pointed out (scroll down to the Disqus comments), they were mostly relaying information that was relevant to the entire fanbase, such as updates about ongoing projects (the dragged-out recording of the audiobook, for one).
In early 2014, lifetime memberships were closed, and replaced with monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription tiers. Bizarrely, you ended up paying $3 more per month if you bought a $99 yearly subscription📝 – but it did include the patch, dog tag, and piece of paper!

Sometimes I kind of want to be part of the cool kids and register to the Asylum Army. Then I remember how it came about, what you could get for the same price a couple years ago, how the whole thing was and is handled, and that I won’t support any of this bullshit. (And then I roll around naked in all the money I’m saving.) (🐀)

Still, a number of fans rejoiced at the affordable monthly option, and joined – if not for the exclusive content and merch (which were... okay, but not much to write home about), then for the friendly, drama-free exchanges with an artist they actually did love, in spite of all the frustration.
For the still-too-poor or still-undecided, there was always the forum! It wasn't as active as it used to be, but a few die-hards still managed to keep the lights on... until, inevitably, Someone Did Something and Ruined Everything. (Once again: EA's wrath is spectacular, but rarely completely unprovoked.) The incident features one notable figure in the Asylum community. Let's call him the Collector.
OK, so maybe you remember the meme I linked to in Part 4, with Christian Grey and the ginormous EA hoard. Well, that's the Collector's collection. The “Violin” promo that I called the "Holy Grail of the fandom" in the same paragraph? Also his. The handwritten lyrics that went for $940? Guess who won that auction. Over the years, the Collector had probably spent five figures on EA merch and shows, and although that fact was a little unsettling, he was a very active, easy-going, and generally well-liked fixture of the fandom.
One day in 2012, shortly after the Headmistress had replaced EA's old Chicago BFF as main forum admin, the Collector's account got banned or restricted over something dumb. When the ban wasn't lifted as quickly as he hoped, he took it... the way one takes things when one is unhealthily invested: he started spamming Headmistress and the mod team with increasingly rambling and abusive emails (lost to time, probably for the best). When that didn't work quickly enough, he tried a different route.
One of the many auctions that the Collector had won, some years prior, was EA's old iPod Touch📝 – which contained all of her favorite tunes and, buried somewhere in the data cache... a phone number. Which the Collector tried calling. And wouldn't you know it: EA picked up. She congratulated him on his sleuthing skills, listened patiently as he made his case, apologized for any distress caused by the unfair account restriction, and then they got married.
Kidding! She freaked the fuck out, hung up, and banned him for life from the forum and all EA shows and events.
After his ban, the Collector allegedly still tried to attend at least one VIP pre-show (one source in the comments says he was allowed to buy some merch, refunded for his ticket, and escorted out). He joined the Reform forum to bitch about EA and try to rally people to his cause, possibly made revenge posts about her on darker snark forums, and continued to hound the Asylum mod team. So in June 2014, EA came up with a radical and unexpected fix to the Collector problem.

The official Asylum Fan Forum has been shut down permanently. I have personally paid thousands of dollars each year to keep the forum safe and secure for you ... Unfortunately, the forum has not been kept safe and secure for me, a truth which disappoints me greatly, instead becoming a place where people who have physically threatened myself and my staff prey upon forum members, pressuring them to contact me and my staff on their behalf. If the gullible wish to humor my stalkers (who live in their parent’s basement at age 30 something) and thus put me in danger, they may do it on their own dime. They may also fuck off, because stupidity can kill, and I won’t be your victim. To those who enjoyed the forum, you know who to thank for its closure. (“On the closing of the Asylum Forum”)

Voilà! This is how a decade-long archive of shared history ends: not with a bang, but with a dirty delete and a sod-off communiqué.
The obliteration of the forum took everyone by surprise...

I was actually on the forum when it was taken down. I was navigating between posts and when I went to click on a different board, an error message came up. I honestly cried a little, I'm not ashamed to say. (WVC admin on Reddit, 2024)

...and I do mean everyone:

Chicago BFF / ex-admin, the next morning: Whoa, EA forum shut down? Ex-mod: It turns out that if someone spends enough years actively “waging war” to destroy what they can’t have, eventually they’ll be successful. * eye roll * Not even mods got prior warning. Just all the sudden, poof, gone. BFF: Really? She did not let the moderators know?! This is sounding worse and worse. Uggh. I’m so sorry. Such a loss. (...) Ok, threats are serious, but why not just put it in archive mode so no one can post? (...) Sad. I shall light a candle in the forum's honor. (Facebook posts; scroll down for screenshots)

It was a gut punch, especially for people who had poured countless hours into the community, or could have used some prior warning to save years of their own writing from the role-playing threads. One last chance to take a look around the place that had meant so much to so many.

From the wording of the announcement of closing the forum and a number of other things, it sometimes seems like EA doesn't like her fans much. :/ (🐀)

Three months after the forum was nuked, Battered Rose (a venerable EA fansite, which had been around since the Enchant era and had one of the most complete EA galleries online) announced that it was shutting down too.📝 The admin, who had also been a long-time forum mod, cited a lack of “time, energy, passion, or money” to keep the website going... and being upset at the sudden disappearance of the forum. It was, truly, the end of an era for the Asylum.
...Well, no point in living in the past. For those who could afford it, and still wanted to talk to/about EA after that (not everyone did 🐀), there was always the Asylum Army fanclub!
Over the summer of 2014, EA held regular live chats and Q&A's, and... many attendees really enjoyed them, and thought the AA was well worth the money after all. She also quietly parted ways with the much poo-pooed Headmistress around that time.

Just spent over 4 hours giggling, drinking tea and playing guessing games in chat with EA and other Asylum Army members ... No griping, no downers, just lots of fun. I think I like the way the ‘new fandom’ is going and now I’m really glad I finally decided to join the Army. (September 4, 2014🐀; Battered Rose had closed the day before)

The forum was lost forever, but perhaps that was a chance for a fresh start. Could this fanclub thing really be the Asylum Renaissance that fans had been longing for?

...I have come today to a very difficult but necessary decision, and that is to discontinue the Emilie Autumn Official Fanclub. The site itself, and the community chatroom, will remain open to you indefinitely, but I will no longer be making updates to the site. (Newsletter, September 8, 2014📝)

...Never mind, then.
Turns out the fanclub had been the Headmistress' idea all along. EA had been reluctant from the start, and although she really enjoyed the live chats with a safe community of people “who are there for the right reasons”, she couldn't overcome her fundamental discomfort with the concept. Lifetime and regular members would receive a bunch of digital downloads and a -35% coupon on the Asylum Emporium for their troubles. EA said she would definitely pop back once in a while for live chats, for free, just for fun, but to my knowledge, she never did.
And so the most devoted fans were left standing in the rain...

She is happy, she made it. She is fulfilling her dreams, found love and happiness after all the pain. I understand that she now doesn’t need “us” anymore ... That doesn’t change the fact she broke my heart with taking the Asylum Army and the forum from me. Yet, I am happy for her. (🐀)

...while naysayers pointed and laughed, Nelson-style.🦠

I don’t feel sorry at all for the people that paid for the Asylum Army fan club. Most of them knew that EA is an atrocious business woman and has broken many promises before. In fact, I laugh at them. They seriously thought that EA would actually stay consistent with this? (🐀)

EVERYTHING MUST GO: THE ASYLUM WHOLESALE

EA fans were left without an “official” home for about three years. This gave them plenty of time to be annoyed at EA for: not releasing the audiobook on time, not materializing any new project for a while... and the new sin of peddling random, ridiculously marked-up AliBaba jewelry as “merch” on her official store. Think faux-antique cameo pendants and $30 Big Ben rings (...because the Asylum story is set in London, get it?).

The whole accessories section looks like a tacky overpriced English souvenir shop. (🐀)

The fanbase lost a lost of steam in those in-between years, because there wasn't much to stick around for. As evidenced by the positive reception of the AA live chats, even in the midst of unresolved drama, out-loud interactions in a friendly environment have always been EA's saving grace. Considering the amount of online hate, there are shockingly few accounts of bad IRL encounters with EA: most people say that in live conversation, she comes across as a fun, warm, and genuinely sweet person. Some report that their negative opinion shifted after meeting her.
But there were no chats or live shows anymore. There was only social media, where she ignored questions and vague-posted about overdue projects – and the newsletter📝, which was all saccharine love-bombing to promote bland dropshipped trinkets. For fans who remembered the handcrafted merch (and two-way communication) of the early years, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

​

So a while ago, I made this post about a friend I made in boot camp. While we did get along well in boot camp, there’s that old saying “Friends come and go”. That applies to both military and civilian life.
I’ve been in the military for almost two years now and have met some great people. It’s sad when you have to say goodbye to friends you make along the way because once you part ways, you’ll most likely never see each other again. That’s what I’m starting to see with military friendships. After boot camp, not everyone in your dorm will be in your technical training base. And then in the operational world, people PCS or they even leave the military. Everyone goes their separate ways.
So back to my friend, he promoted not too long ago (probably like a couple weeks ago). I saw his Instagram “Notes” post and congratulated him. He thanked me and I asked him how he was doing and where he was stationed at. My friend didn’t even ask where I was stationed at and how my life is going at the moment which made me upset. I started to think that maybe he’s just moved on the friendship and I should too. It could be that it wasn’t a real friendship. Now that I think about it, who tells someone “I love you” when you’ve only known each for a month? I could be overreacting, but I am not happy with how my recent conversation with my wingman went. It felt very one-sided, and that’s not a really friendship to me.
I guess in the military there are even fair-weather friendships. Or this was a friendship made for a reason, a season but not a lifetime. I don’t think he’s a bad dude, but I guess we met each other to serve a certain purpose in our lives. The purpose of boot camp is for trainees to work together as a team. Boot camp is a game, and it’s like a team sport. The goal is to graduate, and trainees have to help each other out. One trainee might be good at one thing (drill) and another trainee might be good at another thing (rolling socks). We also have to be there for each other to keep the morale up.
Perhaps, we’ve already served a purpose in each other’s lives.

17 days ago, a member of this sub posted about Ivanna Sakhno joining M3GAN 2.0, we got some comments on the post, and then 3 days ago the OP deleted the post, thereby also removing everyone else's comments from visibility.
I believe that OP is in the habit of automatically deleting their posts after 2 weeks. Since I haven't been given a reason for this, I'm here restoring the comments (which were deleted without consulting their authors), but not the original post (whose author wanted it deleted).
I could restore the comments because I commented myself: by accessing your comments on your own Reddit profile, you can see threads to which you contributed even if the original post has been deleted, including other people's comments on that thread. You just can't get the original post back.
Should any of these comment authors wish their comment to be removed, please say and I will edit it out. Also, if there really is a good reason to delete this entire thread, please contact me or a mod and we'll do it. But my default assumption is we probably want this discussion to be preserved, and the OP's deletion of the entire discussion was a mistake, so here it is.

‘Ahsoka’s Ivanna Sakhno To Co-Star Opposite Allison Williams In Atomic Monster & Blumhouse’s ‘M3GAN 2.0’

Sorry, this post was deleted by the person who originally posted it.
Top-level comment from Jazzlike-Movie-930•17d ago•Edited 17d ago: 4 upvotes:
Here are my theories on which character she will play in M3gan 2.0:

1. She will play Gemma’s rival toy company engineeroboticist.
2. She will play an intern at the Funki Toy company or rival toy company.
3. She will be the voice of Am3lia (the rumored antagonist) of M3gan 2.0.
4. The last theory I have is unlikely but possible. She plays an adult version of M3gan and M3gan looks human. That said, M3gan will probably have that child doll face again in M3gan 2.0 so that makes this theory unlikely.

It should be a big role she landed though and I look forward to seeing her in M3gan 2.0.
Reply Budd96•17d ago•Edited 17d ago: 3 upvotes:
The both 1 and 3 would be a high possibilities for her role in Sequel.
But I still believe she's going to be AM3LIA's Roboticist.
Reply from Jazzlike-Movie-930•17d ago: 1 upvote:
I agree that #1 is probably the most likely option but I would not be surprised if she voices Am3lia. If she is the voice of Am3lia, then Amelia needs to look like a teenage or young adult robot doll or look like an older sister to M3gan.
Reply from Budd96•17d ago•Edited 17d ago: 1 upvote:
Well, M3GAN and AM3LIA are both going to be older in Sequel, both of them will not have relations to each other.
Reply from AntiAmericanismBrit•17d ago: 3 upvotes:
Congratulations to Ivanna for landing the role and congratulations to the M3GAN team for getting her.
We have absolutely no idea who she'll play, but if theories are fun, I don't think they'll mind a bit of wild mass guessing going on.
I agree "adult M3GAN" is unlikely for this actress, because we're told her part is major. It's possible the film might end with an "in the future all grown up" scene, but we have no reason to think that will be the main part of the film (I mean Violet McGraw is 13 now, not 23), and therefore any actor involved in the "all grown up" scene (if it happens) won't count as a major part. (Well it might become a major part in the THIRD film if they go that way, but not in the second.)
Voice of a robot is possible, but would they really hire Ivanna just for her voice? Unlike Jenna Davis, Ivanna doesn't seem to have much of a history of doing voice work. She's very much an actress who gets seen on the screen. So I think the odds of this one are quite low (but I might be proven wrong).
but Shin Hati is a villain in the Star Wars franchise, and if an actress plays a villain in one film, she's more likely to be a villain in another. (But not necessarily!)
I'm not sure if rival roboticists and bosses etc count as "major" parts if all they do is set a robot going and then get off the set. A colleague might if they're hands-on enough. It depends how major you mean by major.
Right now I think the simplest explanation is the Amelia rumour is wrong and the plot will be completely different from what we were expecting. But let's see what they tell us later.
Reply from Budd96•6d ago•Edited 6d ago: 1 upvote:
I don't think AM3LIA plot rumor is wrong at all, there's some truth to it, if the AM3LIA is rumor is wrong, who took the Schematic Files than rival roboticist, it can't be Gemma it wouldn't make sense taking the Schematic Files when she was the original creator of M3GAN, it could be M3GAN herself, but she has some limitations to control any robotic systems that don't have AI integrated, she's probably need human help to create her a new body, that's where Ivanna Sakhno's Character comes in to help.
Reply from AntiAmericanismBrit•3d ago: 1 upvote:
well a lot of options were left open with the files Kurt stole. The main Doylist (real-world) reason for having that in the original film was so M3GAN could call him out on it in the elevator as part of her gaslighting setup.
It might also suggest a history of Kurt leaking Funki secrets to the competitor that made Furzees from Purrpetual Petz and thereby making Funki management feel the competitors are too good at getting stuff quickly, which means M3GAN needs to be launched fast, hence pressure to cut corners. But I think in the case of Furzees that clone could be done quickly from the off-the-shelf product anyway without needing the files (the files might actually slow them down, because they'd get Gemma's listening model tech and the point was to take that out to make the toy cheaper).
Anyway, as of end of M3GAN:

1. We don't know whether or not Kurt managed to leak those files before he was killed,
2. If Kurt did not manage to leak the files, we still don't know whether or not they might still be found by his relatives or by investigators going through his things after his death,
3. Even if Kurt didn't leak them and nobody looked at his docs, it might still be possible for someone else to get hold of the same files off of Funki's system,
4. If somebody does get hold of the files, how easy would it be to use them? When I write code for internal use only, I sometimes fail to explain it properly, meaning I'm probably the only one who can actually use that code without considerable effort. Films depicting stolen code as instantly usable are not actually realistic. I think it would be a great sub-plot if whoever gets the files can't make sense of them until M3GAN-online pops up to help them out with the job. Either that or they have to work for a very long time which explains the delay between the films. Or they have to work for a very long time and then M3GAN-online helps them finish.
5. We also don't know if the files are needed at all. Maybe M3GAN-online can tell whoever she likes how to build a robot designed by M3GAN herself that is better than the one described in those files. Or something drastic happens to totally change the attitude of Funki or Gemma or Cady and they're the ones who rebuild M3GAN. Or something else.

The only thing we do know is, Shakno's character will be "major". I'm not sure what counts as "major" in this case but normally it's things like: appearing in many scenes throughout the film, heavy effect on the plot, and perhaps some character development along the way. I'm not entirely sure that just rebuilding a robot in a couple of scenes is enough to make the character "major". But that doesn't rule out the possibility of Shakno's character rebuilding the robot plus also playing some other role that makes her major, like babysitting Cady for an extended period or something. We don't know; could be anything.
Reply from leytonk_tx•10d ago: 3 upvotes:
Wouldn’t make sense to cast Ivanna who doesn’t do voiceover work at all and is purely an actress for a voice role. I’m going on a hunch just by her previous roles and what she’s good at that she will be the primary antagonist of some kind. Makes the most sense. Uncertain about this Amelia plot, idk if that is even true or if Ivanna’s looks will play a part in her role (porcelain skin, very wide eyes look that could play well into any type of doll/robot) so who knows. Anyways theatomicmonster on instagram reposted Adam Hendricks story from a couple days ago. Peep the directors laptop screen.
Top-level comment from Budd96•17d ago•Edited 17d ago: 2 upvotes:
I believe she's going to be Gemma's Rival/New Doll's Roboticist.
Top-level comment from Ok-Effective4500•6d ago: 1 upvote:
But as who?
Reply from Budd96•6d ago: 1 upvote:
The plot is not revealed yet, her role is currently unknown, but seeing her Play as Antagonist in other films, her character most likely going to help M3GAN to creating a new body and hunting down Gemma and Cady.
She coud be either rival roboticist or she's working from secret military government who worked on building Super-Integelligient Machines.
That's my guess for what she's going to be.

Recently, my school organized a special lecture on the history of the Orient.This lecture was called "The Miracle of the Han River," and it was given by a professor from outside Korea.I was very curious about Korea, so I was looking forward to this lecture. In fact, the reason why this lecture was held was at the request of the students. Since Korean culture has been penetrating into American society for a long time, and many things that we enjoy without thinking are related to Korea, students were curious about what Korea is like.
Then Patrick, the student leader and president of our school, asked the teachers if they could organize a special lecture on Korean history, and they accepted, and eventually the whole class gathered in the auditorium and participated in the lecture. Often, our school invites outside professors to give lectures like this, and most of the time, the interest in such lectures is very high, and the lecture on Korean history was also extremely popular. However, the lectures that invite professors from prestigious universities and the opportunity to gain new knowledge about Korea are popular enough to fill the gymnasium.On this day, there were many students in the gymnasium converted into a lecture hall.As the professor entered, gave a brief introduction, and announced the topic of the day's lecture, everyone looked at him with interest. The professor said that he was asked to give a lecture on the history of the East, and when he was thinking about what topic to tell the students, he thought it would be better to talk about the modern history and economic development of Korea, and for two hours without a break, he explained in depth, in detail, easily understandable, and really interesting.
The professor's first words were impactful: "You all know Haiti, the country that receives U.S. aid, suffered a major earthquake about 15 years ago and has never recovered from it, and is in a state of chaos as one of the poorest countries in the world." "But how would you feel if, 30 years later, you were told to congratulate Haiti on becoming an economic powerhouse?" "I'm the generation that actually witnessed it. "I'm the generation that actually saw that happen, where we were the poorest country in the world, and all of a sudden, we were told that we were an economic powerhouse and that we should be congratulated."The students were surprised to learn that South Korea was once the poorest country in the world, even though it was still a decade after the end of World War II.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Korea was a very poor country until the middle of the 20th century, but since the 1960s, it has experienced rapid economic growth and made remarkable progress, which has been called the 'Miracle on the Han River', and today I am going to tell you the story."
From the beginning of the lecture, the students listened attentively as the professor engaged their interest, and I was particularly curious about how South Korea was able to develop so quickly.
"Korea was devastated after the Korean War in the 1950s, but in the 1960s, a government-led economic development plan began.At that time, Korea made a five-year plan for economic development under the leadership of the government, and fostered industries centered on heavy chemical industries such as steel, chemicals, and electronics.In addition, the country invested heavily in education, and many talented people were produced based on high educational enthusiasm."
The professor's explanation was very detailed and interesting, and I was in awe as he talked about Korea's economic development.
"In particular, in the 1970s, the Saemaul movement was launched to promote the development of rural areas and improve the living standards of the people."At that time, residents in rural areas voluntarily maintained their villages and strived for the development of their communities."These efforts helped Korea to rapidly transform from an agriculture-oriented society to an industry-oriented society.""And this Saemaul movement has become an example for many developing countries to this day, and countless policies have been implemented to copy Korea's Saemaul movement. "It is now accepted wisdom that Korea's Saemaul movement was a seemingly simple campaign that contributed tremendously to building the country's economic foundation, with reports of rapid development in some cases and failure in others." "Korea has written a textbook curriculum on how to grow an economy, and its achievements have become a model."
I realized how much effort Korea, which was poor in the past, made to grow its economy.It was a huge lecture of 2 hours, so I can only write down the core flow, so please understand.The process of Korea laying the economic foundation and starting the high-speed growth was really interesting, and there were many points where I learned how much effort Korean policy researchers made at that time.And the efforts of Korean people who believed in the government and followed the policy, even sacrificing themselves, were also great.
"Today, Korea is an IT powerhouse, with world-class companies such as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai Motor, which have great influence in the global market and are an important pillar of Korea's economy." "The characteristic of Korean companies is that they have always strived to develop technology. "There are five technological powers in the world," he said, "the United States, Germany, Japan, Korea, and France." "The United States and Germany have been doing research and development since the Industrial Revolution, while France has been doing research and development since the Industrial Revolution, and Japan received a huge amount of aid from the United States in 1950, taking advantage of the Korean War. It was thought that Japan, which started 20 years earlier than Korea, would be recognized as the last technological power of the 20th century, but how Korea, which started research and development from the 1970s onwards, became the world's fifth technological power, was a very interesting topic among professors in the 1990s.
And unlike Japan, Korea became a semiconductor powerhouse in the 21st century, and even succeeded in fostering an industry that Japan did not, and created a great foundation for Korea to become a developed country.Look at the iPhone you're using right now, and look at it.Do you see a Samsung product in there?
Most Americans think that the iPhone is made by Apple and developed by Apple, but many of the components in it come from Korea, and without Korea, the product you're using would be half as powerful as it is today.
The professor kept the students' attention for the entire two-hour lecture, explaining the difficult content in terms of the smartphones they use.
At the end of the lecture, the professor said that there are only two role models of economic development in the 20th century, Germany's development and Korea's development are very meaningful, and if you want to major in economics or international affairs, you should familiarize yourself with these contents because they are all liberal arts contents.
And originally, this kind of lecture should be 200 hours instead of 2 hours, but since it was shortened to a hundred and one, the fun is only a hundred and one, and if you want to hear more details, you should study hard and go to the prestigious university where you are, and the excellent lecture ended with the story.
After the lecture, I wanted to ask the professor more questions, but there were already a lot of students gathered around him.Then, my friend Xiao approached me.Xiao was a student who was educated in China until elementary school and then moved to the United States."Avery, how did you like the lecture?" Xiao asked me. I really liked the lecture and I have a lot of questions, so I wanted to ask the professor, but I could already hear the other students lamenting that they wouldn't be able to because the professor was surrounded by other students.I had to leave the lecture hall with Xiao, who was listening to the lecture with interest next to me.As we walked down the hall, I continued to talk to Xiao.Minhwa and Jia told me that they didn't know why they hated Korea so much, and they had to tell me a frustrating story.
In fact, Minhwa and Jia are two students who are very anti-Korean, especially since the student council voted for and against this lecture, and there were two votes against it, so everyone could tell that it was Minhwa and Jia from China, and their anti-Korean feelings, or even hatred, were very strong.
Xiao told me that today's lecture was very different from what they teach in China, and what the professor told us today. Of course, in China, they teach distorted facts, and they don't believe in it, but if you're like Min Hua or Jia, who went to school in China until middle school, it's natural to have a negative opinion of Korea.
Xiao's words were sincere because he had lived in China until elementary school and had been educated in China, so he knew the reality of China very well.In China, Korea is often taught negatively, and Xiao also said that when he went to elementary school in China, he was taught that way, but when he came to the United States and was exposed to different perspectives, he realized that it was wrong.
At that moment, Minhwa and Jia walked up to us, or maybe I should say they walked up to Xiao.Minhwa had a disgruntled look on her face."Korea is so great? I never think so, Korea is worse than our China," Minhwa said unhappily.Jia, who had an equally unhappy look on her face, also spoke up."Right. What's so great about Korea, our China is better."
I was offended by their words, because the facts I learned about Korea all seemed interesting and amazing, so why didn't they think so? And when they said that China was better, they didn't have any basis, they just said that China was better, what's so great about Korea, and there was no power in their argument.Xiao was also not happy when his two Chinese friends asked him to sympathize with them.
Xiao usually doesn't like to argue with them, but this time he was in the mood for a fight.I intervened first."Korea has made great progress, and you'll see that when you do a little more research," I said calmly to Minhwa and Jia.But Minhwa and Jia didn't listen to me.They wouldn't even look at me when I was talking to them.That's when Xiao stepped in and said.
"I'm sorry Avery, Minhua and Jia have been mis-educated, so I'll apologize for them.I know why they think that way, but I know the truth is different, so I want to apologize to you."
After hearing Xiao's words, Minhua and Jia still showed their disapproval. They even loudly argued with Xiao in the hallway. All the students passing by couldn't help but notice that two Chinese friends with wrong ideas were bullying Xiao, a normal thinking Chinese friend, again.
In fact, this scene was not uncommon, but this day was different. Despite the fact that everyone had attended an impactful and fact-based lecture by a professor from a prestigious university, Min Hua and Jia seemed to have no room for improvement, and they were still shouting distorted facts and misinformation without any basis.
From that day on, they were increasingly bullied by their schoolmates. Even when Minhua and Jia tried to talk to their American friends, all their American friends would scold them, saying, "Are you going to distort American history like that?" and no one would listen to them.
At first, Minhua and Jia's attitude was nonetheless brazen and confident, but two Chinese students armed with wrong ideas can't live in isolation in this school. Our school has group work as the basic form of class participation, so there are many tasks that require the help of other students.
Eventually, Minhua and Jia came to me, Xiao, and our Korean friend Minji and apologized to us.To be honest, to this day, I don't know if their apology was sincere.They said that they had learned that much of the education they had received was false, and they promised that they would never say anything wrong again in the future.Part of me wanted to tell them that I knew they were lying to survive, but I couldn't turn my back on them, so I accepted their apology.After Minhua and Jia's disturbance and apology
Although I'm still a high school student, I know that when I grow up, I want to exercise my right to vote and join the anti-China movement. We also realized that China's policy of teaching the wrong history and the wrong international affairs is having a negative impact even here in the United States, a country so far away, and that it is causing the Chinese people to suffer.China's ambitious plan to turn the tables by playing shallow games is just ridiculous and will not work.
I can't help but think that the impact of these lectures on our school is great: first of all, we learned how important it is to filter out misleading and distorted information, and how important it is to listen to such information; secondly, many students have a deep understanding of what exactly the "Miracle of the Han River" is.
As a reminder, South Korea was very poor until the mid-20th century, but through government-led economic development plans and people's efforts, it has achieved remarkable growth, especially spontaneous rural development movements such as the Saemaul movement, which played a huge role in accelerating South Korea's industrialization.
Korea's development has been not just economic, but social as well, with Koreans overcoming difficulties and achieving remarkable results through their high levels of education, hard work, and sense of community.
Now, do you feel that there is any reason for Chinese people here to say that China is greater than Korea? Isn't it just that Korea has created a remarkable growth in the history of East Asia, and it is because of Korea's development that China's factories are able to operate? Just because China is lagging behind, to say that Korea is a lesser country is an expression of inferiority, and it is seen as a desperate attempt to deny their own lack.
This is a good liberal arts course where you can learn the facts about what Korea has done and speak about it with confidence in public, but I think the disturbance by the two Chinese students clouded the essence of the course, because the impact of the miracle of the Han River was diluted by the emotion of outrage at the Chinese students' behavior.
In my final presentation at the end of the semester, I plan to find more information about the Han River Miracle, add new information, and present it to my class, because I feel that it is unfair that the attention to Korea has been diverted for a while, and I think that it would be meaningful to talk about Korea in front of Minhwa, Jia, and my Korean friend Minji.
I hope that the country will soon develop into a mature society that can accept the truth as the truth.