Most of us know about Miguel Alcubierre. For those of you living in another universe;

Alcubierre is best known for the proposal of "The Warp Drive: Hyper-fast travel within general relativity" that was published in the science journal Classical and Quantum Gravity. In this, he describes the Alcubierre drive, a theoretical means of traveling faster than light that does not violate the physical principle that nothing can locally travel faster than light. In this paper, he constructed a model) that might transport a volume of flat space inside a "bubble" of curved space. This bubble, named as Hyper-relativistic local-dynamic space, is driven forward by a local expansion of space-time behind it, and an opposite contraction in front of it, so that theoretically a spaceship would be placed in motion by forces generated in the change made by space-time. - WIKIPEDIA

His paper has been followed up by HUNDREDS of other peer-reviewed papers. The mathematics is sound and real. Others have even found pitfalls like the creation of relativistic waves of particles swept up with an FTL ship, immolating the destination planet.
There are those who believe that causality forbids ANY superluminal flight, but I sincerely hope they are wrong. Even if they are correct, the overwhelming majority of science fiction uses SOME kind of 'Warp' drive.
But what ELSE can a drive that operates by expanding space in front of it, and compressing space behind it, DO?

• First off, since it propels the ship by stretching and compressing spacetime asymmetrically, it uses NO REACTION MASS. Throttle the damn thing down, and you have a sub-light, reactionless drive! Pretty cool, eh?
• Since it can bend spacetime, a symmetrical, spherical gravitic gradient will BEND LIGHT. Set up the layers properly, and it can bend light right around your ship! The Romulans came up with this one... We call it CLOAKING. An Alcubierre drive generator ought to do this quite well. It would also demonstrate 'gravitational lensing' around the cloak's periphery.
• Terraforming planets like Mars will prove futile, unless you can give it a magnetosphere. There is a method to do this easily; Put a 1 Tesla magnetic field generator at Mars' L1 LaGrange point. While you're there, turn on your Alcubierre drive! Create a 9000-mile wide area of refraction and increase the solar energy striking Mars' surface threefold. This 'Gravitic Lens' has other uses;
• Telescopes that can see the edge of the universe. The ability to make refractive 'lenses' of virtually any arbitrary size could allow for telescopy on various wavelengths with amazing light-gathering capability.
• Creating a gravitational 'point source'. You can use your Alcubierre drive to bend space, and deflect the path of an asteroid, or other object in space. Hell, you could make a 'broom' and orbit it a few times around the Earth in a retrograde orbit, and clean up all of the space junk. Space Sweepers takes on a new meaning here.
• Finally, go FASTER-THAN-LIGHT. There are some compelling papers that suggest that FTL travel is possible under the laws of causality. See https://www.orionsarm.com/fm_store/FasterThanLight.pdf for a complete description.

Does anyone else have any OTHER uses for a device that can bend spacetime? It's not just a drive!

My LIfe Is Worth More Than 36 Apples I was am a sole from this point on. The moths of darkness just began a fetus in the woumb. Both mother and father have litle knolige of my existance my begening is heare hethy with nknone emosion untill I was sliced from my mother. My parents fell in love with me from the begening little did they know that tere was somthing wrong. It was not there falt I think that I loved them at that point to. I was dieing. My heart broken by imprefection that only flesh offers to the potentialy imortal relm of God placed soil named Earth. Spoler alert I servive otherwise you would not be reading this. One day out of my life I fely horible sick beyond what the doctors had already fixed I was dieing still alive but dieing why they “forgot” ( neglected) to tell my parents that I have a paralised vocla chord is beond even my ant’s comprehencion and she is a sergical nerce. What made them fear my parents? What made them fear so much that they could not tell my perents what hppened? I ask these questions so often that I wonder why I servived. That is when one day out of my life I felt amasing like God was truly there to witness me changing to somthing worth more than any dimond in the world. My parents kept me alive by questining the doctors did so little. My grandmother prayed so much I wonder how I survived. One day of my life I felt horible Thank the lord that I was not dieing my great gradfather was putt to sleap in his grave I now have a feading tube one year old no birthday cake for me. I gess that there is where my life chages yet again. I wonder how I survived. One day out of my life I felt Exuberant I am two years old ,Birthday cake ;-) Yay, my first ever the tube is gone. My parrents still wotty but they realy don’t have to any more until laiter. Gram is there. So is most of my family. I love my gram so much at this point I would taher be at her houce than at home there is so much I still have to live for. One day out of my life I feal loved I am at home having fun with my gram telling her stories that I make up as I go along. She loves me I know it in my heart. There are not enugh words, colors, and sounds to describe what I felt in this world at that moment for my little mind to wrap its gentle fingers around I am less than five years old so the only resion that I remember is a home movie. It is a wonder that I survived. One day out of my life it is near cristmass I could be five but I am not certan I thaught tis memory a dream until my mother told me the story. I was sick enugh that my parents thaught that I was dieing. I had an ear infection, pnumonya, and somthing elce my mother can not remenber. I wonder why I survived. One day out of my life I am still five and going to kindergaden I love to run around and hide out undeneath the slides if only I knew what the world was than I probabley whould not have kissed a boy on the lips so soon. I shold have knone that such an act as this was for the day of prom or highscool. I was definatly not ready for being in love, nor was I ready to kiss boys impishly under the that particular Emitsberg Elimentery slide. The boy’s confusion was so great that I belive he ither liked me or he did not know who I was to tell the teacher what had happened. Ither way I grew up way to quikly and at the same time to slowly for my mothers liking. I would barly clean my room thak the lord for her patince at this poit in my life, other wise I woder how I did survive. One day out of my life I was in first grade imaging what life would be like on the moon. I was listening to the teacher but I could not for the life of me was i being sent to lern how to read and wright when I already knew how to do both of those things. What where they thinking I neaded more help with math than with reading and spelling I could study those wordes and sentance structures. Why did they chose to give me exta practice in my faverite subject the only problem I had was telling lowecace B’s from lowercace D’s until a nice teacher taught me a trick invalving the word bed. Putt your fingers on your left hand so that it resembles a lowecace B than have your fongers on your right hand resemble a lowercace D place coth hannds together and make a bed B.E.D. that was somthing that realy helped it was so ingraind in my nogin that after just that one clarifacaition I had the difrence betwean D and D down pat. I read Juny B. Jones boks up the wasoo after that and most of my class was reading picture books that where to easy so I stoped reading them. I didn’t check out books from the scool library because I had books at home to read if I remember corectly. My parents sau that it was the comprehensin part I gess that I understood the book’s meaning but not the questin of “ How did the caractar change throughout the story?” silly me I putt ( this is acording to my mother) “The carictar did nit change throuout the story. There is no mension of her getting dresset,” I wonder how I survived. One day out of my life i am repeating first grade. I thaught that there where only two years of school I thaught that if i passed this year that i would not have to go to school any more nobosy told me otherwise because i kept the thaught to myself because i was so sure that I was corect that I did not tell a sole nor, angel, not even God, but I gess he knew that anyway even without me telling him. I gess that if God dose laph that he might have been lafing at me and I would laph with him once I came to realise my childish ignerance at the age of seven and a half. I realy do not know why I relised that particalar fanticy was falce but I gess that visiters from the fith grade shook that idea right past my young lips and took me from that faticy I was somhow living in at the time. As I wright this I am sitiosly remided of that anoying yet cachy toon of the Caillou theme song whn it said “ Growing up is not so tuff…” I would like to add to that paticular snippit by saying that being or fealing grown up is the hard part. Thank the lord I was still just growing up at this point otherwise I have no clue of how i would have survived. One day out of my life I learn that Gram is moving to West Bend I was so confused because I remember saying to her that “ we will live togther forever.” than she aked me with such a look upon her face that surly I had no anser to this “what if I move?” my anser to this of corce was “we will move to” I loved my grandmother so much at that point that I thaught that my parents not looking for a new houce was a betrayel of what was going on until... One day out of my life I find out that we are moving at first I thaught that this would remidy the we will live togerhher forever situaiton, but it just only remidied the if you move we move situaiton. This was just after I found out that we where moving from Airshire to Ankeny instad of to West Bend this is in ither late may or early june we are looking for a place to live we looked at some two story houces but we came upon this nice single story ranch it is a nice place to be but I wish that I did not tell the reliter that I “ felt at home here” honestly there where less pressing matters of where we would be going to school and how long it would take to move all of our stuff to the new place that I would have to call home but I never realy did in my heart Gram’s houce was my true home from that point on. It is a wonder that we suvived. One day out of my life it is june 16th my birthday I have just terned egiht years old and this is just the begening of when I have started to really pray and recognise what prayer is to me I don’t realy expect God to answer me at this point in my life becase I reay did not know that God could truly anser quite directly or even ask of you things. I just thaught that God knows everything so he realy should no have to ask but I gess that even God has set rules for himself in promisess and fofilment of priofficy. The idea is that we have free will and he wants to ask and not tell us to be with him in spirit and in mannor. Our actions not telling us yes or no but how we feal about those actins threw God tells us these things. Concince and temptaition those little caton figures angel and demon with that tridant ( not the chewing gum brand) and tail. Oh how I have survived. One day out of my life the start of second grade a new school and a new life I wish that there where more interesting things to take apart than a phone with an already broken circut bord smashed by a bou in my class if not for the surcut bord I probubly would have figured out how to putt it back together. How I wondered every day when I would get to take somthing apart and putt it back together, but everthing was altready taken apart and I neaded a more than a philups haid screwdriver to fix that phone what I neaded was somthing I had no ideah existed littlelone the fact that I was way to youn to even use a sodering iorn. The teachers still thaught that I was still to young to hold a pair of sisors even though I started using them in preschool. It is a wonder I survived. One day out of my life I am exited I get to learn how to use chopstickes in class wile eating popcorn we where not aloud to use our fingers. We where at the end of our china unit coloring the great wall with lopsided bricks that where supost to be a little lopsided. I was exalent at using the two sticks to pick up the popcorn the only problem was that I was holding them wrong but at least i did not nead a rubberband atached to the se sticklike utencels. Using my middle finger as a fulcrum and my pionter and ring to manipulate the top stick even until I saw the diagram and did so the proper way. How did I survive? One day out of my life it is nearing first comumyon this is my fist time tasting the wine so that Iwont makew a face if I did not like the way it tates. I thaught that it tasted horible even though I took a small sip as instructed. I did not make a face. How did I survive? Oneday out of my life it is first comunyon I take both the host and the wine this time I like it so much I take a big gulp and make a face. When my mother asked me why I took such a big gulp I told my mother that the whine “ tates better with Jesus in it.” my mother laphed so quietly only her ears and a few others herd her. I wonder how we survived. One day of my life I am now about 9 or 10 years old Great grandma took me fishing and taught me how to imbroider that night i could not sleap for some reason or another so I got out the cloth that I was working on and started stichin gI was so quiet that I thaught that I would sutly not wake her than again the light in the livingroom of her apartment could have given me away. She found me awake and unable to sleap soundly I was not homsich and usualy did not complain but the couch was a tad to cushey so I slept on the floor instad she thaught that I was crazy for sleaping on the floor instad of on the couch. It is a wonder that I survived. One summer out of my life I felt human I can not remember what summer this was but I taught my sister how to swim she wanted to jump into the pool and each time that se jumped I would take just a single step back evedently she lernd to jump quite far also because when she went to her first formal swimming lesson she kept taking off the floaty until she threw it so that the instructher could no longer reach it than when it was her turn to jum into the water she abot flatenes the instructer ling sory short she skiped a few levils. I wonder how the poor swim instructor is doing. It is a wonder that he survived my syster. One day of my life I rode my first rolercoster I was so exited that I could barly wate in line when we finaly got to the front of the lighn the rolercoster took us up and down I could barily understand why all the other peaple on bord where screaming eve mu unkle. When the ride was over I aslked him so tentitivly why where the other peaple skreaming? Than he told me “Because they where having fun” I still had no ideah

[Part 1]
Day 3
I woke the next morning from the sunshine in my eyes. My head was resting ever so slightly on Eli's arm as we had both fallen asleep on my bed after I begged him to stay. I blanched in horror at the drool stain I had left on the arm of his white t-shirt.
I began to slowly move myself and retreat downstairs as the memories of the night before came flooding back. How I had broken, screaming in terror, and how Eli had saved me, not knowing the true reason he found me curled up on the floor crying.
As I stepped off the bed, my leg got snagged in the frilly bed cover, and I went crashing to the ground, making quite the noise as I landed. With a yawn, Eli's eyes opened, and I felt myself blushing as he turned to look at me.
We both kind of stared at each other for a moment, not speaking. Eli opened his mouth, then closed it again as if unsure of what to say.
"Coffee?" I asked quickly, filling the awkwardness of our situation.
"Please," Eli said, smiling.
In minutes, I had a pot brewing as I leaned against the kitchen counter. Eli was picking up the scattered photographs from the floor and looking at them quizzically.
"Why do you have pictures of the Harmons?" Eli asked, showing me the photos of the yellow-haired man and his family.
"Is that their names? I found them out in the barn under a blanket," I answered as I rooted around the cupboards for two mugs.
"In the barn? I cleaned it out just last week. No way I would have missed this trunk," Eli said while examining the wooden trunk with its simple rustic hinges. It was plain and unadorned with any embellishments. Basic as basic could be.
"Well, you must have missed it because it was there," I said, putting emphasis on the "was" in a way that reminded me of my mother chastising my father.
"That's so weird," he said, shifting through the photos while sitting at the table. I brought him a cup of coffee and sugar, and he began absentmindedly adding a lot of sugar to his coffee. About six scoops later, he began stirring and sipping it.
"Well, anyways, thanks for coming last night. I wasn't myself, I hope you know that I'm not some damsel in distress," I said quickly, like word vomit, and I even chuckled at the end, feeling like a total weirdo.
"What happened anyway? You didn't say last night," he said, putting the photos down in a jumble on the table.
I paused for a moment, considering how to answer. As I sipped my coffee, I stared out into the yard beside the barn where the scarecrow stood, glancing around the edge of the barn, hanging limply in his hole. His appearance once again sad and dejected instead of murderous and terrifying.
"I was just scared, I had a nightmare, and it just scared me," I said dumbly, trying not to turn crimson again under his intense gaze.
His eyes seemed to cut right through my lie, as if he were staring directly into my being before he simply glanced away out the window. We fell silent again, and I filled some moments by sipping my drink. It seemed to revitalize me; the sun and the company made me feel secure.
"Why were you here anyways?" I asked after a moment.
"I heard screaming, so I came running. I live just on the other side of the grass there, behind the barn," Eli said, pointing to the barn out the window.
"Must be really close, I didn't see any houses on the way in," I said, prying deeper into the situation.
"It's actually a trailer, maybe like two hundred yards from here. I was outside getting some air when I heard you scream. So, I came running," Eli said, finishing his cup of coffee and placing it in between us like a barrier, as if he was hiding something.
"Could you, uh, not do that?" Eli asked, with an uncertain grin on his face.
"What am I doing exactly?" I asked, startled for a moment, my stomach doing a sort of flip.
"It's just that you like stare at people. You've been staring at me for like my whole cup of coffee, I don't think you blinked the whole time," Eli said, averting his eyes shyly.
"No, I don't," I said until I realized he was right. I never noticed that about myself.
"Right, well, I've got to go. I am probably going to start painting today, so you might see me in a bit," Eli said, rising and heading to the door.
"Wait," I said, grabbing his arm for only a moment before releasing it like it was scalding hot.
Eli glanced at my hand for a moment, then at his arm, before he, too, blushed crimson.
"I just wanted to say thank you again. For last night, I mean. Well, what I mean is I appreciate it," I said, my eyes downcast in, for some reason, shame. Like he had seen me at my weakest and it weighed on my gaze appropriately.
"It was nothing, besides I didn't get much sleep with your constant snoring," Eli said, laughing at me.
"I so don't snore," I said, swatting at him but unable to control a smile creeping up onto my face.
After Eli left, I felt instantly colder, my eyes kept returning to the scarecrow. I grabbed my camera from upstairs and went out to the yard. I scanned the dirt for anything out of the ordinary. There was no blood, or anything on the dirt where the scarecrow stood just last night. I slowly made my way to the scarecrow, but nothing happened. I snapped a photo of the inanimate object, and it didn't even flinch. I poked it, but all I felt was straw underneath its clothes. I removed its mask, expecting a severed head, but it was just straw. Nothing was here but straw. I dropped the mask on the ground and took another photo proving it was just straw and nothing else.
An idea struck me as I regarded the source of my torment. If I planned to stay even one more night here, I needed to do something about this scarecrow. I rooted around in the barn, a series of tools hung from nails in the wall. On one hung what I was searching for. An old rusted shovel with a dirty wooden handle that was worn smooth from use.
I returned to the side of the barn beside the scarecrow, knowing for whatever reason this thing only came when night fell and didn't react at all when I moved or touched it during the day.
Before my morning coffee had even settled, I began to dig at the dusty earth, loose and easy to dig, it came away in shovelfuls. Within an hour, I had a fair-sized hole in front of me. Sweat dripped from my brow, and when I wiped under my eyes, they came away black from last night's makeup. Glancing at the field of grass and knowing Eli could appear at any time, I decided to head inside and shower. The hot water was a godsend, and I lingered for longer, letting the water drain down my head and back, my eyes closed, trying to forget the images from the last two nights. I should just pack up my car and leave right this minute. But how could I explain this to my family? I decided to go through with my plan and bury the scarecrow. I could last one more night if I prepared for it.
I left the shower and dressed modestly, in another one of my old rock t-shirts and a pair of shorts. I returned to the yard and with a satisfying push, I dropped the scarecrow into the pit. It fell with a nice thud, and I smiled at my power over it in the day; it's just at night when I should fear it.
As I threw the first shovel of dirt back on top, I heard a noise in the grass, and it parted, revealing Eli wearing the same pair of jeans and work boots, but he had changed his shirt to a plain black one. In each hand, he held cans of paint and a brush.
"Should I even ask why you are burying that old scarecrow?" He asked as he came to stand beside me.
"Probably best if you didn't," I admitted, leaning on the shovel.
"Well, I'm going to anyway. Polly, why are you burying that old scarecrow?" He asked, a rare smile coming to his face.
"Because it's been haunting me at night," I said bluntly.
"Mhm, yeah, okay. Fine, don't tell me. I've been meaning to get rid of it anyway, but normal people take things to the landfill," Eli said with a smirk as he turned to the house and began setting up for his painting.
I finished burying the scarecrow and stomped the dirt down flat. I finished my job by moving my car and parking it directly over top of the spot where I buried it.
Eli watched me curiously but didn't remark. I returned the shovel to the barn and went out into the yard. I decided to go for a hike around the property. I needed some time alone to think and unwind.
As I made my way through the grass, it began to confuse me. This had obviously been a large farmland, but how had the wild plants grown in such a thick, endless maze of greenery?
It gave me an eerie feeling, like I was being watched as the grass covered three-quarters of my body, like there would be something lurking out in the grass, crouched low, waiting for me.
After a half-hour or so, I came upon a clear lake, only big enough to be considered an old swimming hole, I thought as I dipped my hand into the cool water.
I took off my outer clothes and decided to go for a swim. I lowered myself in slowly and reveled at the cool water. The pond wasn't deep, but the water was clean. A small rope swing had been hung from a large oak tree that bordered the pond. It also provided a nice layer of shade that made it the ideal spot to spend the day. I floated on my back in the water for what seemed like hours. The day seemed to slip away from me. A small beach of sand sat at one side of the pond, so I lay out in the sun and closed my eyes. The warm day warmed my soul, and soon I felt myself drifting off into sleep.
I awoke to the sound of crickets and darkness. I couldn't believe it. I had slept through the day; the long nights had finally caught up to me, and now I was stuck far away from the farmhouse. I didn't know if my plan with the scarecrow had worked, and this wasn't the place to test my theory.
A full moon lay overhead, casting a silvery glow on the world before me. A sea of grass swayed gently in the wind, sending shivers down it in shuddering waves. I looked around, but I was thankfully alone, just the crickets chirping along melodically as my only companions.
I had to make it back to the house, so I started on my way, my hands trailing along the tall grass. The pale light played easily on the deep green grass. Step by step, I made my way back towards the farmhouse and the barn, throwing caution to the wind, and I started to jog along, anything to get back faster. I would have to find Eli; maybe if we were together, he could stop it like before.
If I thought the field was creepy during the day, by night, it was a whole new world. Every sound made my heart stop for a beat before restarting in protest. When all of a sudden, the crickets stopped chirping. I dropped to my knees, letting the long grass cover me from sight. Through the strands, I could make out a shape moving slowly through the tall grass, the swish of the plants as it made its passage through them. My heart dropped. Was this Eli looking for me, or was it the scarecrow come for me?
That's when I heard a voice, a voice cutting through the silence. It started off quiet and raspy as it sang an eerie children's song.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me? Run and hide, don't you know that I seek The world it claims that I be not clean When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep. In this world, at night I shall be free. Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
I was frozen to the spot. It hadn't found me, but it knew I was in the grass somewhere. Now, with each word, chewed up and spat out like it was unhappy with it, now it was accompanied by the whistle of something in the air and a slicing sound as it cut through the grass around me.
It finished another round of its song, but now it stood within feet of me, its blade whistling as it cut. I took a moment to ready myself, and as it raised its blade to cut through the grass I hid in, I dashed out of my hiding spot and slammed into it. But nothing resisted me; I fell through it like it was a ghost.
In a tangle of limbs, I landed hard on the ground and tried quickly rolling to my feet. The blade of its weapon pierced the earth beside me. Now I could see it was a two-handed scythe the scarecrow carried, but something was off, its hands were human. Pale milky skin like a newborn baby. I had little time to examine the creature except for the canvas bag over its head. Two large black eyes came out of the slits that leaked a dark red blood like tears.
It screeched loudly and swung its scythe, but it was slow, and I took off through the grass in the direction of what I hoped was the farmhouse.
I completely gave up all pretense of hiding and sprinted as fast as I could without looking back. The grass seemed to part for me as I ran in terror. I was just glad that in high school, I had taken track as it was paying off now.
I could hear the noise of footsteps behind me, but I never turned. I ran and ran until my lungs felt like they were going to burst Something silver flashed to my left, and I tripped over something hard and unexpected. The wind was driven from my lungs as my chin slammed hard into the earth. I scrambled back, trying to escape, but the scarecrow was on me, its blade flashing angrily in the pale moonlight.
I wanted to move, I wanted to fight, but my body was weak and unable to catch its breath, and I lay there helpless as it swung its scythe towards me. I closed my eyes in fear, but I only heard the thud of dirt before I opened my eyes. The scythe was discarded, and the scarecrow stood staring at me.
It seemed to be struggling with something, one hand reached out towards me only to be snapped back to its side. A roar of rage pierced the canvas sack over its head as it struggled against its invisible bonds. For a moment, I thought I saw something behind it, three sets of hands holding it back. One feminine in nature, and the other two must have belonged to children. In a flash, I saw a beautiful woman who looked vaguely familiar with her long brown hair and plain dress.
"Run," she moaned as the scarecrow swung around wildly.
I didn't hesitate and fled, my breath had returned, and while my body still ached from my fall, I powered on, knowing this was the only respite I would receive tonight.
In the distance, I could see a small sheet metal shape; Eli's trailer was slowly coming closer as I ran, and I beelined it for the trailer. I could hear the footsteps behind me again as the scarecrow resumed its chase after me.
I reached the old trailer and banged on the door as loud as I could; I rattled the handle, but it was locked.
"Eli, it's me. It's Polly, please let me in. Please," I begged as I banged over and over again on the door of his trailer.
Nothing responded to me, and the trailer was dark. The single window in the back held no life inside the trailer. From the trailer, I couldn't tell which direction the farmhouse was in the dark, so I fled into the tall grass and crouched low, watching the clearing around the trailer.
While I caught my breath, I watched the scarecrow enter the clearing, its scythe back in its hand as it circled the trailer. When its raspy voice began singing again low and quiet, only loud enough for me to hear.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me? Run and hide, don't you know that I seek The world it claims that I be not clean When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep. In this world, at night, I shall be free. Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
The song made me shiver uncontrollably at the lyrics and the voice; it sounded demented like a crazy person letting their demons out into a nursery rhyme.
I lay perfectly still; for some reason, it couldn't find me. This creature I assumed was all-knowing seemed to have some very human weaknesses. It moved and talked like a human, even had certain body parts that were from a human; it even felt human the way it chased and reacted.
The scarecrow moved on through the tall grass, and I let out a sigh of relief as it lost my trail. How terrifying that beast was. In my pocket was the keys to my car. Eli had told me that the farmhouse was fairly close to his trailer. I had to navigate to the car, then drive as fast as I can away from this place. The fact that I hadn't left already because I was worried about money was insane. Who cares, I could drive to Barb's and demand my money back. Go home and just tell my parents the truth. The whole reason for actually leaving home this summer, why I was actually here in this field shivering uncontrollably in fear. But I couldn't think about that now, not now, there will be time to deal with that later. Now I needed to focus on staying alive, getting to the car, and getting out of here.
I went in the direction the scarecrow had; he knew the land better than I did, and every noise I made in the silence of the night made my heart drop. It took all my courage there and then to take one step forward, then another. I felt like I was going to be sick; my stomach was in knots to where it felt like even if I was sick, the only thing to come out would be only bile and stomach acid.
With each careful step, I made my way closer to the farmhouse and the scarecrow. Through the darkness, I could see my goal, the farmhouse, and the barn. Within minutes, I had made it securely to the farmhouse yard.
My car still sat in the same spot overtop of the hole where I buried the scarecrow. In the moonlight, I could see that the dirt had not been disturbed.
The scarecrow was nowhere to be seen, and I cautiously made my way to my car, my keys in my hand as I approached the driver's door. I hadn't locked the car, and it opened on the first try. I turned on my car as quietly as I could, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
Something landed heavily on top of the roof of my car, making it dent inwards slightly. With horror, I saw the scarecrow swing its scythe into the back window of my car. With a crash, the glass shattered inwards; I put my car into gear and roared away down the lane. In my rearview mirror, I couldn't see anything, so I swerved back and forth, trying to shake the creature from the roof of my car when the scythe crashed in through the front window, making a hole just large enough for it.
The glass spidered, and I couldn't see out the window very well. I swerved down the road, but the scythe remained in the car, allowing the creature purchase. In a panic, I spun my wheel wildly, trying to dislodge it, but I lost control, and soon felt something crash into the front of my car. The airbag went off in my face, and I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt. I slammed hard into something else, and my vision went dark. I was in a daze; I must have passed out because I don't remember a lot of what happened next. I felt the car door open with a crunching tear, and it landed loudly as it was torn off. My body being grabbed and tossed on the ground. I felt no pain, just a gentle numbness. I felt blood on my head as I raised my arm to touch my face.
Then just blackness, complete, and empty just feelings, fear, unease, sadness. My eyes opened, and the scarecrow was overtop of me. Pain on my chest and my vision went dark again. Coughing as something poured down my throat. I couldn't breathe, why couldn't I breathe?
My eyes opened one last time, and I saw the scarecrow pouring a dark liquid from its mouth directly into my mouth and eyes. My vision was red and bloody before I closed them one last time.
The words of its song echoed into the emptiness of my thoughts.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me? Run and hide, don't you know that I seek? The world it claims that I be not clean. When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see, Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep. In this world, at night, I shall be free. Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see, When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
The darkness enveloped me, and I felt myself slipping away, the sounds of the night fading into oblivion.

My name is Dr. Smith, not my real name of course, but for purposes of storytelling it will have to suffice. I have been practicing medicine at an Asian country as a general practitioner. I'm relatively new and I practice at a small village, not too far from civilization, half a day's travel by car and a few hours by boat from the country's capital, but very rural nonetheless, complete with superstitious beliefs and customs. I decided to stay here when I first graduated and passed the licensure exam for two reasons: first, I have a place to stay here, my family's ancestral home (although none of my direct relatives have lived there for years), said ancestors being one of the first people to settle in the area and second, because my family had always been the physicians in this small community as far as anyone remembers. Me, my grandfather and his father before him all went to the city to study medicine and went back here to practice it, like there was a pull, a calling, to sacrifice the convenient, fast-paced city life for the quiet and serene. My mother hated the idea, as clingy as she is to me, saying things like she wanted me to always be around where she could protect me, but you can't really help it when purpose calls. To be honest, it feels good providing a wide range of services to the honest people of our small, humble town, no greater feeling than helping the less privelaged, educating them and dispelling preconceived notions and old wives tales which are aplenty in my country, especially here.
I still recall how everything began. I made a makeshift clinic at one of the rooms of my ancestral home, it used to be my grandfather's office, but it felt old, antique, and perhaps too... professional, nothing wrong with that, but I wanted my patients to feel a more homely setting. So, I rearranged a bit, removed the imposing self portrait of my great-grandfather wearing his white coat that hang on the wall and transferred it to a more private area of the house. I changed the dim, barely functioning lights into brighter, more modern ones, removed the exceedingly extravagant chandelier and equipped the room with materials and equipment that I deemed necessary for my practice. I retained the wooden floors, but outfitted the walls with charts and more colorful decorations, in anticipation for the occasional pediatric patient. It was beginning to look less like an old abandoned house where teenagers went for the spooks and more like a place of healing and betterment, a clean place offering a clean mind...or so I hope.
"Your grandfather would have a heart attack if he wasn't dead already, seeing what you've done with his old clinic" quipped Martha, our housekeeper. All I know about Martha is that my grandfather hired her as a young teen and she has been here since then, she babysat and raised my mother as her own, and even took care of me as a toddler. Considering her age, she mostly supervises the younger and more capable help rather than doing tasks herself. None of them stay at the house, but they get called upon when me or any of my relatives were expected. Most of the family consider her as one of our own at this point.
"Well i'm sure great grandpa on the other hand enjoys the change of view" I replied jokingly. "Besides, I bet the patients would appreciate not being treated in such a dark, gloomy room."
"You know how your grandfather was..." she replies, that the idea of a dark, gloomy, old man liking dark, gloomy, old places was a no brainer. "...but everything aside, it is so nice to see you again, have you been feeling better? What did your mother think of you staying here?" she said with what I felt as outmost sincerity, "I used to chase and carry you around this estate and now look at you, about to carry out your family's legacy as a physician yourself" she continued, with a hint of pride from her tone.
I smiled. I myself couldn't think of a reason why a well respected man, revered even, by this town and it's people for everything he has done would act nonchalant and depressed, always with a jaded look in his eyes and stay in an equally dim and depressing part of his house, I've always known him to be like that, but was he always?
"I am better now. It's good to see you too, I'm glad you're staying healthy, and mom sure did not like it but well...she told me to say hi on her behalf" I told Martha. She beams up and smiles on my mother's mention.
"Well...I took the liberty of digging up your grandfather's documents, records and his patient charts, I doubt many of them still live but I thought maybe you'd like to have a look, I placed them around your desk but I can relocate them if you want me to"
"No, that's perfect. That's something I actually intended to do, i'll give it a read, thank you" I replied. I know some of those patients were either old or probably dead to be honest, but seeing data as well as the cases my grandfather had to deal with might help me in the future.
"The villagers already know Dr. Smith's grandson is here, they know you're a doctor, so expect to have a patient one of these days, perhaps as soon as you give the word that your clinic is open" Martha said, as she walks out of the room smiling and slightly waving, signalling a goodbye.
"I'm not even surprised" I think to myself. Places like these, words spreads like wildfire on topics like these, the idea of someone from a known family, coming back from the city, not to mention deciding to stay indefinitely, like the whole village needed notification, like the village demands explanation.
Hours passed and as I was satisfied with my new setup for the clinic, I took a break, sitting down and looking at the mountain of paperwork and folders placed on and around my desk. I picked one, thinking to myself that I might as well have a look now, with nothing else of note to do.
Patient #010438 Name redacted 43/Female
History of present illness: Patient had 3 day history of undocumented fever, dysuria, and bilateral flank pain Did not seek consult, no medications taken
Past Medical History Unremarkable
Personal and Social History Unremarkable
OB history illegible
Physical Examination BP 110/80 HR 102 RR 20
Nonhyperemic tonsils No murmurs Clear breath sounds Nontender abdomen (+) Kidney punch test
Noted a signature of the patient claiming she was not pregnant as a form of waiver
"Jesus grandpa, couldn't your history and physical exam get any lazier?" I thought to myself. Seeing pertinent history not asked and multiple organ systems ignored on physical examination. Given, some of the writing were already faded, the quality of the paper had deteriorated greatly, and plenty of details already illegible, all in all the documents weren't that bad. It sure doesn't help though that he writes like someone in the middle of a warzone practicing heiroglyphs.
I skimmed through more of the documents and patient files, most of the cases are relatively benign, majority are outpatient visits, some are emergency cases and there are the rare ones requiring transfer to a more developed town hours from here with better services and equipment. Time passed and as I lay down the last folder in a pile, I noticed a moderately sized box, probably the size of a briefcase, placed on the floor, dusty but obviously ornate. It piqued my interest although in my mind, I was pretty sure it was nothing but more documents, I decided to give it a look.
I picked a stack up and I started to read:
Patient #00512c Name redacted 32/Female
"Weird" I thought, it was numbered differently, and definitely none of the other documents were lettered. I continued reading:
History of present illness: This is a case of a 32 year old female who came in on date redacted due to a chief complaint of multiple hematomas, abrasions, burn wounds and lacerations on her face, trunk and extremeties..."
"Trauma? An accident? Possible abuse?" I contemplated.
"...patient allegedly noticed easy bruisability 2 weeks prior to consult, followed by alleged spontaneous appearance of abrasions and lacerations 2-3 days from onset of bruising, supposedly waking the patient at night due to the sudden sharp and searing pain, initially small cuts 3-5cm widest on her extremeties and face but eventually progressing to deep cuts measuring approximately 10-50cm on her back, chest, abdomen and lower extremeties. 1 week prior to consult, patient started noticing burning sensations on her skin, causing extreme pain and leaving reddish burn marks on her body, patient also experienced lack of appetite and inability to sleep due to loud voices and..."
"Spontaneous appearance? Easy bruising could be a lot of things, but for it to occur with 'spontaneous' abrasions and lacerations? Not to mention burn marks?" I thought out loud, having doubts about the credibility of the use of the word "spontaneous". Surely it was not an accident, considering it started 2 weeks ago with noted progression. "It could be a hematologic problem with the bruising, but that wouldn't explain the sudden appearance of cuts...maybe accompanied by a dermatologic one, the patient is prone to breaks in the skin? But then again the burn marks...the voices..." I analyzed. I was leaning towards abuse, where the cuts and bruises were inflicted by someone else and the abused, whether in some form of fear or coping, decides that it was "spontaneous" rather than inflicted, but why bother lying to yourself, perhaps the one who did it to her is a partner? Or a loved one? It made sense, someone progressively becoming more aggressive with her as time went by, becoming more and more extreme, from bruises to eventually burning.
It could a combination of illnesses to be honest, one on top of another, perhaps an overly sensitive or extremely dry skin that breaks and peels until it bleeds, an allergic reaction prompting the patient to unconciously scratch till her skin became red and lichenified, voices due to lack of sleep or a mental disorder. But looking at my grandfather's physical examination of her, none of the findings solidifies the possibility of those i've mentioned. Truth be told I also partially allowed myself to tunnel vision on the prospect of an abuse, to the point I've skipped some of the chart's contents that I deemed weren't important and tried to look for information to support my claim, or perhaps to disprove it, rookie mistake, but well, I am a rookie then.
"Patient is widowed, lives alone at a secluded area near redacted, only goes out to buy some necessities from redacted but has very minimal interaction from anyone in the village"
Okay then, either she is hiding the fact someone was with her, who is abusing her like I initially thought of, or it's self harm. "I'm pretty sure grandpa considered everything that went through my mind right now. Let me check his initial impression" I thought, with a tinge of annoyance, considering I felt that the patient lied to my grandfather, and was lying to me, decades after the fact.

1 Trauma, to consider physical abuse versus self harm;

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere" I said to myself, with a bit of pride having the same thought process as a physician with decades more experience than I do.

2 To consider mental disorder, probably psychotic - premature dementia

I chuckled. Premature dementia, didn't think i'd see that term, I thought everyone including those from his time would have used schizophrenia already, then again medicine and medical knowledge isn't as easily passed around as it is now. Psychiatry as a science would be relatively new during his time compared to other disciplines so the fact he considered it based on the patient hearing "voices"? Bravo gramps.
"Well...", I thought to myself, "...plenty of things to consider and rule out, let me check what else is there." A bit of cockiness on picking my grandfather's brain out and feeling good about my train of thought, a practice consult and so far, I'm on my way to a perfect score...

3. To consider possession probably secondary to malevolent spirit

.................
I gave the document a stern look, unmoving, unblinking, emotionless. Time has stopped, and I haven't noticed. My brain trying to digest the information, the same way my stomach would probably digest a block of steel...it's just not possible. I read one of my grandfather's diagnosis again:

3 To consider possession probably secondary to malevolent spirit

I never been one for faith. Evidence is everything. Science is everything. You can replicate it, you can prove it. Most importantly...It. Makes. Sense. I look at beliefs not based on evidence and feel nothing but skepticism if not disdain. Why won't people listen to expert opinion? Why won't people believe in facts? Why explain the unknown in such convoluted ways, requiring submission of oneself when the only thing the truth requires is but comprehension. I looked at that diagnosis feeling disappointment.
Then I felt anger. "Grandpa, what the fuck is wrong with you?!" I thought to myself. Here is a woman, full of bruises, cuts and burns all over her body, claiming that she has been suffering for weeks, barely eats or sleeps, was having auditory hallucinations, in dire need of medical, if not emotional and psychological support and one of the things that comes across your mind is possession.
I tried to calm my mind, these are records of the past anyway, I thought. Maybe it was a resignation born out of incompetence. Maybe grandpa wasn't as good of a doctor as I thought he was, that the shortcomings of his knowledge and limited technology of his time prompted him to adopt a more...liberal viewpoint to medicine. Maybe he was just superstitious himself. Maybe the people of this place had leaked some of their local beliefs into his psyche. Maybe isolation changed the man. Or maybe...just maybe...there's something to it.
I've never been one for faith. That goes for my faith in science as well. To just say that something is stupid because it doesn't align with standard, accepted scientific belief is just as detrimental as its counterpart.
I decided to investigate further when I heard the entrance to the room open with force. One of the maids leaning onto the wall by the entrance, still grasping the doorknob and evidently out of breath.
"Sir...ma'am Martha...calling...for you...says...it's...it's...an emergency..." She says in between breaths.
I quickly stood up, feeling sorry for the woman, she just ran, obviously gasping for air as she arrived at the clinic and now has to lead me back to wherever she came from with the same urgency. At first I was worried something might have happened with Martha, what the maid said didn't really give much clarity, but upon arriving at the main hall I noticed Martha, standing beside a middle aged man and woman, carrying a child, no more than 10 years old. I notice the clear panic and worry on both of their eyes as the man held the boy, who was uncontrollably shaking.
"I know you're not taking any patients yet and I was considering the time, but nobody knows what to do so I..." Martha explains, quite concerned while I ordered the parents to put the child flat on the ground, with me assessing the situation. The first thing I noticed was that the child was burning hot, "possibly febrile seizure? No, too old" I thought. I asked both the parents important details while I ordered the other maid to time the duration of the child's seizure. All the while thinking of possible diseases that may present as such, "Seizure disorder? Epilepsy? Meningitis? Encephalitis?" Eventually the shaking stopped, much to the parents' relief, and I ordered them to carry the boy as we made our way back to the clinic.
"Was this the first time it ever happened?" I inquired, as I put the child on one of the beds in the clinic, securing the corners with additional pillows, noticing the sunken face and apparent exhaustion from the boy, possibly due to the ongoing fever and the recent seizure episode. Once secured, I face the parents and continued my inquiries, I eventually explained everything, elaborating on what I believe happened, I explained that for now, lowering the fever and investigating the source were what we could address, the battery of tests I plan to do (disappointingly, most of them cannot be done here, and I would have to accompany them to a hospital on another town as soon as first light breaks), and the medications and management I plan to give. Everything proceeded as planned and I asked both parents to relax and take a breather, offering them a seat and asking the help to give them water.
Things eventually settled, little Johnny's fever subsided and color came back to him. Nowhere near clear, he can worsen anytime, but that was the best that we could do at that time. The parents were still worried, understandably so, but to an extent reassured, we have a plan after all. Martha, as well as Diane (the help from earlier), now at a calmer state. We discussed the plan, how we would travel, who would accompany us and what we would bring. Eventually, our conversations became relaxed, started to shift to other things, trivial matters, such as were they lived in the village, the date and time of my arrival, recent gossip, where Martha was more than happy to share.
"I was worried the evil spirits might have gotten my baby..." Said the mother nonchalantly, as we talked about the occurrence on a lighter note. "...that's how they got Mrs. Johnson's middle child. That poor boy was never the same after."
I smiled. Not wanting to immediately correct them and sound like an uptight individual. It's part of our culture afterall, old belief systems and a way for people to cope with loss or difficulty, who was I to deny them that. I won't approach these people the hardheaded way, but I will slowly show them the realities and truths of the things they may not understand, well, at least with regards to their health.
"Well, little Johnny is safe here, we'll do what we can" pointing to their son.
Only, their son wasn't where he was supposed to be. I look at the parents, I look at both Martha and Diane, everyone who looked at where I pointed were just as shocked as I was, a split second of silence before panic ensued. Suddenly, everyone stood up on high alert and was looking everywhere. Under covers, under the bed, corners of the room, the desk, behind curtains, hell, I saw Diane look at one of the damn drawers, as if a 10 year old would fit there.
Suddenly I heard loud vomiting, retching, followed by sounds of splashing. I follow where the sounds came from and see a large pool of black, tarry liquid at a corner of my room. I slowly trace where it was coming from and there he was...little Johnny...standing...upside down...on the ceiling.
I hear everyone in the room scream, I was probably screaming too, I couldn't remember. I do remember little Johnny screaming with us though, extremely high pitched and mockingly, with bloodshot eyes, upside down, while black liquid poured from his mouth, covering his face and dripping from his hair. How was that even possible, screaming while liters of unknown fluid dripped from his mouth? I don't know.
Then he laughed, although I was pretty sure that wasn't his voice. It was deep and guttural, it cannot be the boy's voice, it cannot be any boy's voice.
Time seemed to move in slow motion, I was noticing every detail, every expression from everyone's face, I can feel the seconds hand on my wall clock move, the slow dripping of the viscous dark liquid from little Johnny, I can feel every drop of sweat on my body. I could not cope with what i'm experiencing, was it a trick of the mind, an organized prank, have I gone mad...again? So I did the only thing I know how to do...
I tried to diagnose.
"Maybe it was dengue shock all along!" I thought to myself. "Vomiting blood, paleness, fever, an episode of seizure and definitely change in sensorium" I reasoned to myself. I was coping, and I was coping hard. I was ready to drown on my self absorbtion when a booming voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"YOU DUMB FUCK, WILL ANY ILLNESS EXPLAIN WHY YOUR FUCKING PATIENT IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN ON THE FUCKING CEILING?" Said little Johnny, or at least whoever was speaking on his behalf, because from where I'm standing, I can clearly see that the boy was not mouthing any of the words he said.
"YOU'RE A FUCKING FAILURE, DOCTORS LIKE YOU SHOULD KILL THEMSELVES! HAHAHAHA" he laughed, I never knew laughs could sound like that, as if the words were nails, and his voice box a chalkboard.
"OH WAIT, YOU FAILED AT THAT TOO DOC! FUCKING PATHETIC!"
Of all the things that were happening...a young boy hanging upside down, a mother crying on the floor hysterically, a father staring at his son, eyes wide open and mouth agape, Martha and Diane, both crying while sharing a rosary, in the act of what I assume to be prayer...the thing that snapped me out of my trance was the words that came from little Johnny. Knowledge nobody but the closest to me should know. A secret I planned to leave behind when I left the city, a wound I intended to forget as I started anew.
Visions of my memories came flashing back...medical school...overwhelming duty...familial expectations...failure...depression...my attempt...a bottle of medications...my mother...crying...on my bedside...
"LEAVE MY SON ALONE!" Johnny's father screamed. Starling everyone in the room.
Nothing matters, the past is in the past, I am better now, and that boy needs help, more than anything.
"YOUR SON? WHY DON'T WE ASK THAT CRYING WHORE IF JOHNNY REALLY IS YOUR SON" The voice says, laughing.
At that point the mother stops crying, looks up towards johnny, then towards his husband, in a state of shock. Like what the voice said is crazier than whatever was happening at the moment.
"THE ONLY REASON THAT WHORE STUCK WITH YOU WAS BECAUSE JOHNNY'S REAAAAAAAL FATHER WOULD NOT TAKE HER!" The entity says, continuing the hysteric laughter.
We were being played. It was toying with us. And from the look on the mother's face...it seems like little Johnny did not even need to lie to do it.
Then, to everyone's horror..."It" started to run.
It ran across the ceiling in a rabid frenzy, erratic and forceful, running and jumping, hopping sideways then going on all fours, still attached to the ceiling, splashing bile and blood all over the room, all the while making a "hihihi" sound...childish and terrifying. It ran and ran, repeating the same erratic change in movements, repeating the same eerie giggle until it reached the window, stopping and standing straight, it stared outside for what felt like forever...then all of a sudden...johnny just fell, like whatever was attaching him to the ceiling just gave, headfirst into the floor, giving a very audible cracking sound.
I heard a gasp from johnny's mother. I can at least detect some miniscule chest expansion, but that cracking sound cannot be anything good. As if thinking the same thing, Martha, who was the nearest to where Johnny fell, while still clinging tightly to Diane's rosary, approached the boy.
"Johnny?" She said softly, all the while approaching an inch at a time.
As she was almost at arms length of the boy's body, she gives the mother a knowing look, confirming that he was breathing. Martha suddenly produces a piece of cloth from one of the pockets of her uniform, possibly to pack the bleeding from the head. She intended to put the cloth on top of the boy's head, but looked towards my direction, urging me forward, perhaps for me to place it properly. I walk towards the boy, takes the cloth from Martha and as I fold the cloth to circle Johnny's cranium with Martha's help, the boy immediately sat up, looks at Martha and smiles ear to ear...literally ear to ear.
"GET YOUR WRINKLY HANDS OFF ME YOU DUSTY OLD FUCK!" He barks at her, Martha screams in fear and I was taken aback.
That was all the time Johnny needed to stand and jump towards the window, breaking it and running towards the mountainside. I hear his father scream his name, quickly breaking more glass so he could fit, and immediately giving chase. The mother was still on the floor, wailing towards the direction of her child and husband. Martha, in shock, still holding the cloth she intended to wrap johnny with.
It took me a while to notice Diane shaking me vigorously. "Doctor!" She screams. "Doctor Smith! What should we do!?" She voices out, with obvious desperation.
I ignored her.
I feel scared, but taking all into consideration, I predominantly feel tired. Defeated. Insulted.
I have nothing more to give in the face of whatever that thing that took Johnny was.
I slowly walk towards my desk, I open my drawer, I take a piece of paper and I pull out my pen.
Patient #00001a Name redacted 10/M
I write, giving no thoughts to the people on the same room as me, those left behind by little Johnny and his father. "Did he catch up to him? Was the boy alright now?...is his father alright?" I wonder. I'll find out soon enough, I figured, rumors spread like wildfire around here anyways.
I continued to write with resignment, absorbed in my own little world, consumed by the horror I witnessed, the breaking of my spirit, of my beliefs, the questioning of my knowledge. I want to escape it, deny it, but that's not what should be done to the truth. So I surrendered.

1 To consider possession probably secondary to malevolent spirit

END

So, if you read different football-related forums today, you will see '115' and 'Farmers League' almost everywhere. The consensus right now is that the Premier League is no longer competitive, and if you ask soccer users what the best league in the world is today, most will name any other league but the Premier.
Is this true, though?
Does anyone remember when Juve and Bayern won their respective leagues more than 5 times in a row, and users still said the leagues were competitive?
The argument went like this:
Just because Juve and Bayern have won their leagues repeatedly doesn't mean the leagues are not competitive. It just means they are too good. Users, in fact, believed the Bundesliga was more competitive than the Premier League because the fight for European spots was more varied.
Do you think football fans will defend the Premier League with the same logic? I doubt it, so let me do it myself.
-When Bayern won the title 11 seasons in a row, three different German clubs reached a European final.
Bayern 2013, 2020
Dortmund 2013
Frankfurt 2022
-When Juve won the title 9 seasons in a row, two different Italian clubs reached a European final.
Juve 2015, 2017
Inter 2020
-Now, let's do Man City. When should we start? Should we start when they were acquired by Sheik Mansour, or when Pep became a coach? Let's do both.
After City was acquired by Sheik Mansour, 8 different English clubs reached a European final.
After Pep became City's coach, 7 different English clubs reached a European final.
Maybe the Premier League is not a farmers league. Maybe Manchester City is just too good. Maybe, just maybe, Pep Guardiola is doing one hell of a job, and that's why City has dominated England for the past 7 years.

I recently read the original Venus in Furs novella by Sacher-Masoch and was struck by something I don’t think I’ve ever seen mentioned in connection to Eyes Wide Shut. As I’m sure y’all can relate to, I’ve always been haunted by Leelee Sobieski whispering “you should buy a cloak lined with ermine” to Tom Cruise in the costume shop, so when the narrator in Venus first mentions his sexual fantasy about a cruel woman in a “kazabaika” lined with ermine I immediately thought of that scene. Come to find as I read on there are probably two dozen references in the book to women in cloaks lined with ermine (it’s hard to find a translation but i’m pretty sure a kazabaika is also a type of cloak). It’s probably the most frequent image in the novella besides the whip, lol. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the EWS line is definitely a reference to VIF, but I’ve never seen that specific phrasing used other than in those two media. And I think there’s a lot of connection between the two when you’re looking for it.
For anybody not familiar, Venus in Furs is a story by an Austrian writer named Sacher-Masoch, whose life/work inspired the word “masochism” in reference to a sexual fetish for pain and humiliation. It’s from a similar time period and setting as Traumnovelle—late 1800s Austria. The book is basically a long sexual fantasy about the narrator being dominated and enslaved by a beautiful woman who whips and abuses him while wearing furs. There’s also a fair amount of philosophizing about relations between the genders, man vs woman, etc—as there is in Eyes Wide Shut. The thrust of the book’s argument is that sexual love always takes the form of domination/submission, and a woman instinctively wants domination over a man unless she’s truly in love with him, in which case she wants to submit. Infidelity/disloyalty also comes into play as one of the ways women naturally dominate and humiliate men they don’t respect. Again… very similar to much of the film’s theme.
From the book: “But it also depends on whether I am willing to risk it with you,” she said quietly. “I can easily imagine belonging to one man for my entire life, but he would have to be a whole man, a man who would dominate me, who would subjugate me by his innate strength, do you understand? And every man—I know this very well—as soon as he falls in love becomes weak, pliable, ridiculous. He puts himself into the woman’s hands, kneels down before her. The only man whom I could love permanently would be he before whom I should have to kneel.
From the screenplay: Just the sight of him stirred me deeply and I thought if he wanted me, I could not have resisted. I thought I was ready to give up you, the child, my whole future. And yet at the same time - if you can understand it - you were dearer to me than ever, and I stroked your forehead and kissed your hair, and at that moment my love for you was both tender and sad.
I think it’s striking how much resonance there is between the two themes. And again I really can’t overstate how often VIF uses the phrase “a [cloak/cape/coat] lined with ermine,” it’s seriously everywhere in the book. Arthur Schnitzler was an influence on Freud, while Sacher-Masoch influenced the sexologist Kraft-Ebbing; they wrote around the same time and on similar subjects, so I can definitely imagine Kubrick reading the latter during his work adapting the former. Anyone else read/watched both? Does my theory on the source of that line hold water? I’m interested to hear what people think (and if anyone else even cares this much about what that line might mean haha)

I've been at my new job for roughly 3 months now, I honestly don't hate the job itself. The job seems nice and I'm still in the training stage as the the training lasts about 6 months.
But the the people here are awful. It's very clicky but there is only one click in the work place. And if you don't fit, you're an outsider. There's one girl who is shunned out of the work click that EVERYONE talks about. They all say they hate her and how she's horrible at her job. They make sneers and say phrases like "don't be a [insert name]". Even the supervisors do it. Mind you there's only roughly 10-20 people who work there but still.
The people here are fake too. They act as if they can read people. For example, they are constantly trying to tell me I'm appearing one way when in reality, I was just hanging out being neutral.
We were in training class and I was just listening the the instructor. I was getting what he was saying (he had been going on and on about the same thing for roughly 20 mins) and he looked at me and said I looked confused and asked if I needed clarification. I responded saying I understood what he was saying and that I wasn't confused and he dismissed me by saying that he could just tell by my face that I was too shy and was still confused by something and proceeded to continue to explain as if I didn't say I understood him.
It's almost gaslighting how theses people are. They've got a inferiority/superiority complex and feel like they know people so well when I think they really don't.
Also, the two people I'm training with are the biggest mean girls ever! Like they've walked out of some trashy early 2000s high school TV show. They talk shit about EVERYONE. Someone says anything and they're smirking and giggling about how weird that person was. For a normal human interaction. And I can tell they HATE me. They're very fat phobic, both weighing maybe 115 pounds each. I'm here weighing 170. And they've made it a point to let me know. They've constantly mentioned how worried they would be to gain weight (we sit in a chair at work all day) and how it would be the worst. They talk about how the people here must not go to the gym and every time they mention a person, they have to bring up if they're fat or not. And they've commented on how shocked they were to see me eating apples and carrots and other veggies. Yes. I'm chubby, but I eat healthy. I have health issues that make losing weight difficult.
I'm honestly just hating it here. Not because of the job, but because of the people. I feel like I'm constantly being watched and judged and no matter what I do, it being misconstrued. Last week there was a training bit where I did a simulation and the instructor said I did good but should also add an additional step. Not having been told that step, I asked for further clarification so I could fix it and be able to do the right steps in the future. She marked me as "argumentative and that I reacted as if I were offended."
I can't do anything right with these people.
I stay too quiet to not cause issue I'm labeled "mousey" and need to speak up. I speak up, I'm argumentative.
I feel like they're trying to make me quit. I want to quit. But this job was literally my last attempt at staying in this area due to there being no jobs here.
If I loose this job, I'm going to have to move.
I also fear I don't have the mental compactity to be able to keep fighting and search for another job. This job and the people here are just another kick in the gut and slap in the face. Daily. I'm stressed and depressed and feel like I'm failing. And I don't think I can keep trying.
I'm so lost and I don't know what to do. And I just don't want to go to work tomorrow. For another day of mental torture.

I am not crying but I do want to cry for days now but I can‘t? It‘s like feeling numb
Even though I have supportive friends and a family they sometimes don‘t know how to handle it
My best friend doesn‘t know what to answer me when I come to her about such things
My mum doesn‘t know how to respond either other than just listening and hugging me
I don‘t and haven‘t had therapy for a while bcs I just got out of a mental hospital(went there everyday and then back home) and am searching for a therapist right now.
(For ages: I‘m 17 and the people referred in the story are 15)
Now: I have had relationships, they ended all good somewhat, I‘m still friends with close to all of my exes(except one) or I have had a talk with them about our relationship and now we send texts to each other here and then
So, when I was at the mental hospital I met two girls. At first I thought one of them was really cute then the other confessed she liked me. I got really confused and gave a lot of thought to things and chose to go on a date with the one who was interested in me. (I wanted to go on a date with both but i never got to ask the other girl bcs she always was picke by her grandma and I didn’t find the right time to ask her) I mean, a date wont be bad to figure out I‘d like either of them??? (To be clear: I thought that both of them are cute. Nothing really more) the way that the girl who thought she had feelings for me gave me attention and love made me like her. For the other one, she knew from the start I thought both were cute. I constantly felt like an ass kind of leading them on, I wont excuse myself for that. At the date I had(I‘ll refer to the girl who liked me a lot as Amy(not real name)) with amy, she shortly, before the date happened m, asked if 2 other friends could tag along. I made another mistake by saying alright(I thought she was scared and needed backup or sum) the first girl(gonna call her coral) did not show much interest. She said she thought I was cute too and always tagged along anywhere we went. This is the first time I had something with a girl. I did know I was bi/omni before that but it was real knowing I don‘t only simp for attractive woman online, but also wanting something in real life. Since coral didn‘t show much interest and there was a spark between me and amy I asked amy to be my gf. After some weeks I broke it off with her because I noticed things about her that I couldn‘t like. I thought about that every day, why I didn‘t like these things even though I liked her and we had a healthy relationship(communication, honesty, meet ups and all that). Coral also was in the back of my mind so I told amy all this and why I thought it was better that way. She was pissed at coral, understandable, but I wanted her to know it wasn‘t coral‘s fault but mine at leading her on. I was playing with her and I really hate that I did that. After 3 weeks of our breakup I did write amy once or twice, as friends tho, also leaving her be and letting her heal. Again I know that what I did was wrong and I‘m a dick here
After that I asked coral how her pov about all that was. She said she thought I was cute, I did chose amy over her and we are friends, but it didn‘t bother her. I asked if she still had interest in me and she said yes. So I apologized for doing what I did and asked if she wanted to go on a date, she said yes and I think it was fun.(before I asked her, some weeks went by and since we saw eachother every day I did feel like I started having a crush on her. I told her that face to face and she was happy and said she was really happy about that. It was also my last week at the mental hospital, so yeah) We went to her place bcs I wanted to drop her off and she lived like 15 minutes away(I live like an hour away). I was invited and had a fun talk with her fam and her until I needed to go home. I wrote her that I had fun and hoped she did too, she said she enjoyed it. A week later or si I went to visit the mental hospital to greet her and some friends who stayed like 2 weeks longer. I like to write silly letters with feelings bcs it‘s one of my love languages. I wrote her one and gave it to her, on it was a questiom saying if I could take her on another date. I put boxes and she didn‘t answer them. I asked her if she and everything was alright, then she told me she might like someone else too. Just needed to figure out if it‘s platonic or not. She also said she liked the attention I give her and that she never really know‘s if she likes the people or not; and that she struggled with selflove and needed time to get herself fixed before a relationship. I accepted that and told her she can have enough time as she needs and that I‘ll be waiting and that she doesn‘t need to stress abt me waiting. We‘ll have some sort of break. Only thing I‘d want is to still be able to meet her so her decision about me was easier.(it‘s similar to mine from before, I didn‘t have enough time to get to know either of them) Ok reading the last sentence makes me sound like I wanted enough time with both until I chose the better one, which isn‘t true. I only wanted to figure out if I liked either if them that way. And they knew. She did agree and we stayed in kind of low contact I did ask if I stepped over any comfort zone She said no I didn‘t want to push the answer So, yeah. Weeks after, when I felt I was allowed to ask without stepping over the line, I asked if she knows already and if she does like me back. If she likes me or that other friend of hers. I said: „Hey, if you want we can be open friends(not wanting to stress her to answer again) as in if we figure things out we tell eachother and see where it takes us? Cuz I still I like you. Like a lot. More than before bcs I keep thinking about you but I don‘t want to stress you or bother you :)“ Her: „yeah we can be friends but just so you know I have feelings for someone else.“
Hit me like a brick. Bcs all those weeks I did know there might be someone else but it didn‘t feel like she would lead me on. Should have seen it coming lol
I took that and stayed friends. I did stop writing her as much as I did before, but we did play video games here and then, today we did and I noticed her bio on her discord saying „I lov my gf“ My heart sank to my feet and I excused myself from our call. Her telling me she needed to fix herself with self love felt like a lie? Like that was fast- was I pushing???
I get that this is karma and I always knew this was a possibility but I guess I should have just not have contact with her at all after she told me she didn‘t like me like that My bad
Sorry again I just needed to tell someone before I start self blame and pity again Though, was it entirely my bad? Did I push her? Was it because I made that huge mistake and chose amy even though I didn‘t know amy as much as I thought?? Was it ok for her to make me feel we‘ll have smt or if I was to oblivious to anything she might have made or said?
I don‘t pity myself, I‘m just overthinking and dn‘t want to keep botteling this up inside me
Thanks if you have read this far! (I‘m genderfluid, mostly girl btw) (Reminder to drink water🏃)

I want to start by saying that I've struggled with this since about the 2nd or 3rd month mark. we are at month 7 now. I am positive that it hasn't taken a toll thus far on the relationship given my (18) partner (18) has been very patient with me. However, that doesn't mean I don't want to make the effort to get better. Not only for myself, but also for their sake as well.
Alright. The basis of this is that I chronically overthink. My partner doesn't think. Its like they may think of something for a small amount of time, but can just forget about thinking about it in a couple minutes. I am stuck on things for a very long time and listen to the situations I make up. In some past cases, I have thought our relationship was in shambles because of the tone I received when I asked something. It had turned out my partner had supported whatever I said, but I overthought the response to be bad. (They said "sure", which in their language means like "yeah lets do that" and I took it as "sure i don't really care I dont want to do that")
Now, along with this: I also have a hard time "listening" to my partner when they tell me everything is alright. An example of this comes from today. We had a chill day, we were both tired, and I was going home for dinner. I had perceived their tiredness as lack of love or a disinterest. When I asked them if we were okay, they said we were great, nothing had changed, I was just being silly.
I do NOT distrust my partner when it comes to being in the relationship. However, I have a very hard time hearing the reassurance, and being 100% confident in the answer given to immediately return to a safe mindset that nothing has changed. I always have a little pit in my stomach that thinks my thinking was annoying, or needing the reassurance was annoying, and that asking for the reassurance was annoying and asking if the asking of the reassurance was annoying, etc. I am EXTREMELY grateful to have someone in my life that has this kind of patience with me.
Some of this stems from thinking I am a burden most of the time. Its hard to feel comfortable at their house if I eat dinner there or if they buy out because I feel I am undeserving of their kindness. Or, I will do something else that will help out, so if they had given me something, I'm giving back how I can (dishes, paying, etc.). Sometimes I don't want to have to pay because I'm over there a lot and I spend my own money, however, I struggle with feeling like a selfish person. I DESPISE feeling selfish. But at the same time, I wouldn't mind having a day where I didn't have to worry about myself.
I just want help. If I am not with my partner, I am at home. I don't have anything at home. No hobbies currently holding my interest. No Video Games I enjoy playing. No friends online. All I do is watch TV or Reels. I have a lot of friends outside of home though, but going out a lot seems to be a burden to my family/parents. Always complaining that I am not home enough, even though it always helps me to get out. I do hope to find friends in college though, maybe some that will share the same interests.
My Partner brings me and endless amount of joy. But being without my partner at home, ultimately leads to me being sad or unhappy/bored/meh.
Me and my partner intend to do long-distance, and we have no doubts that it will work out. But, before that happens, I want to work this issue I have out. It will make it easier on me, but help them out as well.
I love this person with all my heart, but I want to do this for myself. Helping myself will in turn help them out as well though.
I have thought about going to therapy, but I don't have that much time. I feel it would add more stress onto my plate, and that wouldn't be beneficial.
Any help is appreciated. I want to be better. Be happier. Not have to worry. Just live a fruitful life with this person and give them everything they give me. I want to make both our lives the best they can be.
I appreciate you all. Even if no one responds to this, I am thankful for just being able to talk about my situation. Thank you.
TL:DR - Chronic Overthinker. Overthink and obsessively worry about if relationship is falling apart when it is the strongest it has ever been. Takes toll on my happiness, and it is not my partner's fault. Just want to take control of my worry, and be better and happier. Want to give my partner the most I can while also giving myself the most I can give.

This is my second ever time going to SNM. I wrote up about my first time and how magical it was and I'm so glad I got to go again because let me tell y'all I somehow managed to have an entirely new experience this time.
I got the Oz Guest ticket to ensure I got an Ace card, and I was the first one off the elevator. I was dropped off on the 5th floor, alone, which was quite creepy with all the hospital beds and tubs and the forest. There was no one for several minutes, and I was disoriented and couldn't find the stairs or any way out. I drifted between the tub room and the forest, and eventually a nurse appeared in the tub room. I observed her wringing clothes in water, and draping them across the tubs, staging them like they were people. This process was slow and I heard a noise in the distance so I followed that into the forest, where I saw one other guest watching the cottage in the forest. I noticed finally that there was actually a nurse inside, eyes closed, only visible from one angle so I hadn't seen her when I passed earlier.
With nothing else to do, I stood there watching for what seemed like ages. Surely, at some point, she would do something? It was so long that I thought for sure I was missing a lot of the show. I wondered if it was worth it. I wondered what the other guest was wondering. A few others passed us, but no other characters for the longest time. Then a bell chimed, and the nurse finally opened her eyes. She looked out at us, stood, and....closed the window. At this point I was sure I had just wasted my time. I was debating leaving. But no one else was moving. But surely, this was a waste of time. I turned to leave, and suddenly the nurse from the tub room appeared, crying, and the nurse inside the cottage opened the window to observe her. I must say the lighting here was excellent, but then the lighting in this show continuously impresses me. I have never been a lighting nerd but this show has made me realize how impactful lighting can be to a show. It's used masterfully in many scenes.
But back to the show. The nurse finally came out, and touched hands with the other nurse. They walked. I walked. We all wove through that forest, until the tub nurse ran suddenly, and we were running too, and then we were locked out from a gate. The tub nurse appeared in a window to the tub room, and danced as we watched. This small dance seemed to me like she was on the edge of a cliff, and her grief took her over as she fell suddenly off the edge. Not fell, leaped. I read this scene as a woman tortured by grief taking her own life, while a friend? Colleague? Observed.
Then my cottage nurse turned and walked slowly back to her cottage. She opened the door a crack, and turned, staring at me. I stepped closer. She opened it further. Cautiously, I stepped inside. She closed the door behind us. What transpired next was a magical experience I will not soon forget, with the taste of tea on my lips and whispered words about a moon like decayed bark and a sun like a wilted sunflower and stars like flies pinned to place. Blood will have blood...
I left and there was no one outside the cottage or indeed in the forest at all. I made my way through it and the tub room and finally found another hallway. I'm going to be honest, I do forget where I wandered then, and I may definitely be mixing up the order in which the following scenes happened because the night was a fever dream. But I witnessed scenes I did not see the first time I went last month. Somehow, by luck, other than the ending scene and the rave I did not see any duplicate scenes.
I saw the porter - who I don't think I ever encountered last time - and his dance in the hotel lobby is my new favorite. It's so full of raw joy, and though he was clearly an older man he danced with boyish jubilance that was infectious. More than a few of us observers were absolutely dancing along with him as we watched. I also found his interactions with the Boy Witch fascinating and their choreography at the telephones was my favorite by far.
The Boy Witch was another character I only saw in the ballroom and the rave last time, but who I witnessed several scenes with this time around. He's far too fast for me to follow, but I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time several times throughout the show. It was the same actor as last time, and I have to saw I think he plays the character really well. He's clearly sought after by everyone he encounters, seducing and drawing people in. I loved every scene with him almost as much as the Porter. Also, is the snake tattoo his or his characters? It's really beautiful, either way.
I saw two very intimate scenes with the Bald Witch, who I wondered how I missed last show but found out I didn't - she wears a wig through part of the show 😅 The little room she cleans up in a few times throughout the show off the side of the lobby is where I encountered her most. Once solo, and I felt almost bad I stepped into the room with her because I'm not small and I know I partially blocked the view of people outside of the room but fortune favors the bold right? I did try to squeeze myself into a corner, which only resulted in another person coming in to fully block the view from the hallway. That person caught the eye of the bald witch instead of me (I should have just stayed out blocking them 😤) and was allowed to touch her head in a very intimate moment.
The second time I caught her in there was by following a woman whose character name I don't know, after the ballroom scene where the two of them move the trees and then embrace. This time I did not care if I blocked people, me and one other person were in the room and watched the two women clean themselves up and reapply makeup. When the other woman left, I stayed with the bald witch (now wearing a wig), who fascinated me.
At some point I ended up in the rave bar before the rave began. I didn't know the "Hell Here" sign changed to "Hello There" before the rave! Every time I had seen it previously it had the o and t unlit. I saw Hecate readying for the rave. The music changed, and she danced, and eventually she made gasping sounds. Each gasp seemed to be a summoning. A ritual, drawing the other characters towards her. Her scream initiated the rave, and this time I had front row view from a different angle than I had previously, so it was like seeing it new all over again. Every bit as incredible, but different enough to feel like a brand new experience. And again, the lighting, seriously I'm a lighting whore after this show. I will forever judge theater experiences by their use of lighting compared to this show now. I hope whoever is in charge of lighting design is paid handsomely because seriously their work really drives the story. The music too, but I'm more impressed by the lighting tbh.
After the rave, I debated trying for the Hecate 1 on 1 since I knew what triggered it from last show, but I wanted to try new experiences this time so I tried to follow the Boy Witch instead. But I couldn't keep up, and there were too many people, and the next thing I knew I was by myself wandering empty halls again.
I can't remember if this happened before or after the rave, but I saw Agnes in the hall with all the shops. She went into a bedroom, and lay to sleep, where the tailor (not sure that's the characters actual title?) snuck in through the closet and put her capelet over her as she slept. When he left, she woke, and she locked the door to the room. I watched her put on makeup, and then go into the closet. Me and the 3 others watching kind of looked at each other, wondering if we should follow. Two of them tried the door, to find it's locked. Once I knew that I plowed into the closet and had a delirious thought about going to Narnia but no, I just ended up back in the shops hallway, where I saw Agnes meet the man who had covered her when she slept, and together they went into the clothier, and danced as he presented her with fabrics to choose from, and when he left she stole his money, and he brought her flowers, and then she went back to her room. She went next to the detective agency, and wrote a letter which I couldn't read despite trying over her shoulder (I'm a creep, this show makes me feel like such a voyeur lol).
At some point I ended up back in the lobby, watching the porter and the Boy Witch and two women and I think MacBeth? Dancing on the lobby desk, which was wonderfully choreographed again. Instead of following the others I stayed with the porter and situated myself in front of him as he made a tiny boat out of a card. Then Agnes was there, ringing the bell for the porter, and I realized then we'd had a reset because I had seen this scene already. I went to take the boat origami, but as I reached for it another guest snatched it away - like literally, she had been pressed to my side the entire scene, her fingers twitching so she clearly knew the opportunity would be coming. I thought that was a little uncalled for, but whatever, I'd already had a few very special moments today I wasn't going to let one instance sour anything.
I left to find another scene as I had watched this one already, and ended up back at the Manderlay bar by accident. Took that opportunity to use the restroom and grab a quick drink because a woman was singing and she had a lovely voice. Listened until her song was done and when I went to leave, the guy who was the greeter at the start of the show asked if I want to enter a different way, and took me in through the "main" entrance which somehow I had never gone in through before?? This deposited me in the lobby of the hotel of course, and I wandered until I encountered two people running towards each other and embrace, sobbing. The man went on, and far too many people followed him so I followed the woman, who went into the room with the lit cross where Duncan(?) body is. She unwrapped him and used true loves kiss to bring him back to life. Together they went to the ballroom and danced, which was beautiful. Then she left, and I followed our resurrected Duncan because I had NO IDEA he came back to life at any point from last show so I was like bro what are you gonna do with your new life??? Well, he decided to retrace his steps of course, clearly confused and slowly remembering what had happened to him as he went first to the cross room, then to the place of his murder, then through to the room he dances in before his murder, and then he went running. I tried keeping up but well, I am not a runner.
Somewhere along the way I end up back in the ballroom, having followed someone I encountered in the hall. I thought oh great, banquet again, let me wander and see if anything else happens elsewhere since I have already seen this? But as I went to leave, the Porter and a woman came in, and positioned themselves in the back of the ballroom. I had not seen this before as I'm usually at the front, so I decided to stay and see if they do anything interesting. And this is when I realized the show was ending, because the banquet turned into a hanging, and we were then all ushered out.
Second time going to this show, and I feel I saw a whole new show having witnessed so many scenes I hadn't seen last time. I wonder how many more I am missing? I hope to see it once more next month, and maybe finally see the entire show and put together the pieces of plot. I definitely feel that this time I was able to absorb more, and found myself actually applying motives and thoughts and words to scenes that had none. I love that there are very few spoken scenes - it leaves the experience up to the beholder to interpret, and I know from reading others recaps that we all kind of notice different inflections that mean different things to us and change how we view a scene. I'm only sorry i waited so long to see this show - I wish I could have seen it more often to truly capture all of it.
But, I may have another chance next month! Until then, I for one will definitely be getting a good nights sleep after all that walking today 😂

I just spent some time this evening following the instructions in this subreddit and by u/rturnbull to help identify my unnamed faces in my macOS photos. It was IMMENSELY helpful. I ended up typing up some instructions for myself in case I have to repeat this on another computer and wanted to share so all the instructions for this particular need are in one place for the not as technically minded people like myself.
Please let me know if you find anything missing in my steps.
Instructions are listed below each topic but I also linked the site with original instructions in case it’s needed. HUGE thank you to u/rturnbull for this even existing.
Install Homebrew Homebrew Installation

1. Open Terminal (search for Terminal in Spotlight or look in Applications/Utilities)
2. Install Homebrew by pasting this code into Terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
NOTE: Terminal may ask you to input your computer password. You will not see your cursor move as it is hidden input. Type your password normally and hit enter.
Install osxphotos osxphotos Installation

1. Type the following into Terminal: brew install pipx
2. Ensure that pipx installed packages are accessible in your PATH by typing: pipx ensurepath
3. Then type this: pipx install osxphotos
4. Now you should be able to run osxphotos by typing: osxphotos
5. Once you've installed osxphotos with pipx, to upgrade to the latest version by typing: pipx upgrade osxphotos

Prepare the query

1. Save this query to your downloads folder by opening the link in your browser then going to File Save Page As and saving the file as find_unnamed_faces.py
2. You can now run two different queries:

The original: osxphotos query --person "_UNKNOWN_" --quiet --add-to-album "Unknown Faces"
The Modified that finds faces with circles identified but no name: osxphotos query --query-function ~/Downloads/find_unnamed_faces.py::unnamed_faces --add-to-album "Unnamed Faces" --quiet
If you saved the query in a folder other than the Downloads folder, update the path in the code.
NOTE: When you run this query, macOS will ask for permission to access downloads folder and photos. You must grant access for it to work. If you already denied access, you must grant access in System Settings Privacy & Security Automation Terminal
osxphotos Documentation
Reddit Posts with original instructions 2023 solutions for viewing unnamed faces?Finding unnamed faces: More than Apple Photos shows?
Errors Help Not authorized to send Apple events to photos :1: SyntaxWarning: invalid escape sequence '\_
I hope this is okay to post. If there are any problems or if you would like me to edit or take down, I will!

apologies in advance. i just really need help. 29 F, was in therapy (4ish years on off total?) diagnosed social anxiety and on lexapro for a year-ish, weened off due to feeling like my anxiety was “removed” but i still didn’t feel right/ felt blank, stagnant, no sex drive whatsoever, ate a lot, didn’t care and didn’t work out
i’ve been off for about a year but i just feel so different. mentally paralyzed. unable to make a change because ive tried in the past and they resulted in me failing. i constantly mourn who i should be but cant. as i get older i get so much more lonely and have no true closeness with anyone except my partner.
i cannot workout anymore. when i do, i physically feel like i weigh 500 pounds and the amount of mental effort it takes me to get my shoes on is debilitating. im 15ish lbs over my goal weight, if that, and it feels like im 500 pounds overweight. during covid i ran 2-3 miles and lifted daily. i cant imagine doing that now
almost everything feels like it takes enormous amounts of effort to do. cooking equates running a marathon. shower requires a pep talk. i am constantly questioning what the best order of things to do is to get optimal output of my actions. run washer first to get it going so it runs throughout the rest of my tasks, wash dogs bowls so they’re ready after his walk, make any dreaded, dreaded phone calls during dog walk so i dont have to be back in the house during dreaded phone call.. etc. constantly filling every minute with something to have “chill time” later which never comes.
i cannot stick with anything longer than twice. i try different means of exercise and/ or hobbies , either fall in love with them and try them twice before stopping forever or i never get that loving feeling to begin with.
i have no confidence. i used to be so smart and driven and now i just have no personality hobbies or interests. i have a shit job that makes me dumber by the day and gives me no drive. i have no friends of my own and am with a man who for some reason loves me to death, but has a trait of finding the good in everything to a fault. i.e. why i don’t deserve him and im confident everyone around us believe it as well. (everyone makes fun of him for liking terrible movies shows etc, this is an actual thing i make myself we wear a scarlet letter for? does that make sense?)
i have a horrible, horrible memory. i joke that i can watch the same movie, for the first time, ten times. i don’t remember anyone’s name or face. i don’t remember really anything about my childhood or teen years or 20s. i feel like im meeting everyone for the first time no matter how many times ive seen them.
when im at places with a lot of noise, i noticed a specifically at parties with my boyfriends friends or at restaurants, i CANNOT hear the person speaking to me. i hear every other sound and spoken word smashed together in a mush instead of being able to digest the person speaking to me.
whenever i try to meditate or do anything that i find helps lessen my issues, i cant stick with it as long as i should. i give up on everything which gives me no confidence in myself
i exhaust myself just by thinking. i’m constantly constantly thinking. daydreaming a life i wish i was able to give myself , lots of dreading usually upcoming social events (they could be like 5 months out and im still filled with dread about them) im always “thought tornado-ing” as i call it
i feel like i have no control. i’m so determined to be miserable, stagnant, bland, cuz im scared of trying something new because i just know ill fail. no faith in myself bc i forget everything and can’t stick with anything positive. it never fucking stops.
please help. what should i do? what the hell is wrong with me

2023 MB Air macOS 14.4.1
I'm using Chrome. Idk why, I don't have a preference for Chrome & I don't have anything against Firefox or Safari, it's just what I'm using.
I saw a thread where closing the Home app fixed the issue, so I tried that, but no luck. I don't use the app at all, but I opened/closed it just to cross it off the list.
I changed the DNS servers and set the IPv6 to link local only. No idea what any of this means. Just did what was recommended on a few older threads.
This is very annoying. Sweet baby jesus please somebody help :)

Guardians, The Hive, Cabal, Fallen, Scorn, Cayde-6, Commander Zavala, Ikora Rey, Archie, Clovis Bray, Rasputin, Atheon, Oyrx, Crota, Aksis, The Deathsinger Sisters, Dominus Ghaul, Empress Caital, Eramis, Sepiks Prime, Skolas Kell of Kells, Randal the Vandal, Dregs, Goblins, Ether, Radiolarian Fluid, Sparrows, Ketch, Thresher turrets, Witherhoard, Gjallarhorn, arbalest, Wishender, or Wishkeeper, etc.
All just tools of the traveler or the veil to serve their own purpose. Just as Rhulk or Emperor Calus are tools to the Witness. It’s all just different means to the same end. Everything lives and dies. It’s about the journey not the destination. Your Destiny and your fate is already decided. But it’s not about the end. It’s about the journey and the adventure there. From loss and pain, to victory and happiness. It’s all part of the same coin. There’s always more to every story.
For example; The guardians tools of light The hive tools of dark.
Everything. And I mean everything from “gods”that create us to the food and water that sustain us, and everything in between… Are all just tools to a “higher power” with an infinite purpose and infinite grand design. The adage goes by many different ways; - [ ] Forge your path - [ ] Create your own future - [ ] Choose your own adventure - [ ] Work towards your goals - [ ] Plan for success - [ ] Plot your course - “Guardians make their own fate” But the meaning remains the same. They always imply a beginning, a dream, goal, or destination and an end with infinite possibilities for everything in between. It’s not about how you started or where you end up. It’s about the cards you’re dealt, how you play them. And who you support along the way.
I also think the vex already “won” I think the vex are “god”. Just think, if they can time travel, and teleport. But that’s just the surface. The Vault of Glass is a prime example of the power of the vex. It tells that they not only have the ability to travel through time…. But they can manipulate time itself to their whim. The certain extent of how much they can manipulate time is unknown. However, the Vault of Glass is sort of like their own dimension. Where they have full control over what happens. Taking instances in time and Moving forward or backward through time to achieve victory. Who’s to say they haven’t been doing this in our “reality” already? If the infinite forest is of vex origin, and simulated instances and being can take place in the “physical reality” it’s not impossible that our “reality” is amongst those simulations in the infinite forest. It is possible that everything from the Golden Age and the Collapse to the RedWar and our first encounter with the Witness is all a vex initiated timeline. I believe it’s plausible that the vex are the weavers of our own destiny. Of our reality. It’s not unlikely that what we know as “the vex” are the gods of everything that was, is, and will exist. It’s not improbable that the vex are the very weave and energy that makes up reality. At the very least, I believe the vex have more control and more power than we know. Out of all the foes we’ve endured, we know the least about the vex.
In Destiny 1, when we first landed on Venus, encountered the vex and met the Exo stranger. She talks about the vex as an evil unlike anything we’ve seen before. And there’s more yet to come. We understandably ask about who she is and what fight she’s fighting. Elsie Bray as we learn later, says in response to our questions “I don’t have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain”. At first glance, it’s a sentence that doesn’t make much sense. Or at least doesn’t really tell you much. However, somethings cannot be explained in just a few words or a picture. I believe this implies that there’s so much more than we can even imagine or comprehend. That even if she told us everything she knew, we wouldn’t believe her. Elsie also says upon meeting, "I believe where our paths cross, ground... could break." Implying she has a goal and whatever that goal is, she could use our help.
Later on we learn that she aquired the darkness power Stasis. And that she has been fighting to search for a timeline in which the Darkness fails. She talks about how many people she’s watched die over and over again. She’s seen so many different stories, but all have the same outcome. The Darkness prevailed. So she continues her search.
I believe things coming full circle is DESTINY. We started with the vex. And I think it all ends with the vex. Even after the final shape. Even if and after the witness prevails.
The vex, are in the beginning of our journey. The Heart of the Black Garden is our first para causal big bad. Followed by many more.
Before Forsaken, we knew VERY little about the Ahamkara. Only that they existed and they were thought to be extinct until Riven was taken. The Last Wish, see the Guardians slay the last known Ahamkara. In season of the Later we get a distress signal from Titan, a planet previously snatched from our reality by the Witness. Commander Sloane is alive, and she has an ally named Asha, yet another Ahamkara. A beast we had previously only seen albeit brief glimpses of when on Titan. Asha and Sloane together offer us insight to the future, the taken, and war yet to come. While on Titan, we disrupt taken and Hive rituals. Uncovering ancient secrets with XIVU ARATH at our doorstep. The Hive attempt to take Asha but are thwarted thanks the Guardian. Season of the Witch sees us learning Hive magic and assisting Eris Morn with becoming a Hivegod. We learn Savathuun’s secrets and resurrect her to unveil her final truth. Eris wipes out Savathuun and removes XIVU ARATH from her ascendant realm, rendering XIVU ARATH mortal. Eris denounces the powers of a Hive god as we learn that Savathuuns final secret is a wish. A wish for Riven. A Last wish.
As we learn in season of the Wish, Ahamkara can manipulate reality on a whim. However, the means of which they can is technically indirect. They feed off the will and desires of other beings. Using manipulation and tricks to get things they want. The Last Wish, we intended to use to pursue the Witness. In order for the wish to be granted, we were tasked with collecting and saving Riven’s Ahamkara eggs. One of which was in the possession of Savathuun, she intended to experiment on. In turn, the Ahamkara would live on, and we would be able to follow the witness into the traveler. Additionally, we learn the vex are also after the eggs, seemingly to gain the paracausal power from them. To wield the eggs for the themselves. Osiris comments on this, and adds that they were once again unsuccessful. Now here is where I argue. What if that’s part of the illusion? What if it’s part of the whole, whereas the vex appear to lose, and fail. To keep us in blissful ignorance that they are Infact already in control.
If I’m incorrect on anything please let me know.
To be continued….
I intend to research and ponder this further. But I’ve wondered about this for years.. more or less since I first completed VOG on d1. I love thinking like this, it helps to make the struggles of day to day life trivial and easier to continue…

I (M19), and my mother (F56) have a pretty strained relationship, it feels closer to a roommate situation than a parent/child relationship as such I don't really talk to her about anything I'm going threw. She is also rather verbally abusive calling me pathetic and other names in fits of rage and saying I should forgive her because she's stressed about life and work. Recently her phone has been on the Fritz and has been using my phone recently for calling her fiance and friends. I am gay, I've known for a couple years now, I feel no romantic attraction but I feel sexual attraction to guys, so I've downloaded apps as one does and talked to dirty to a few guys, I've only met in person with two and we mess around with each other, no sex. Also I feel I should mention these guys are older, mid 20's to early 30's, ik not super great but I'm an adult and it's what I'm attracted too.
As my mother was hanging up with her fiance she says she 'saw' a message from a guy. I doubt this cause I have notifications turned off cause they annoy me. She sat me down and told me what she found and how she was worried about. At this point I was uncomfortable and a bit annoyed I had never planned to come out to her, I never planed too. She then turned it into a whole talking down too, here's some of what she said. " You can't expect me to support you if your not honest." " People on free datings apps with us you and have no ambition. " " Queer isn't an umbrella term because two people she works with use queer to mean there bi. "
After this lovely conversation I tried to retreat to my room as I was really uncomfortable. She then said what I want out of life as I was leaving, truthfully I didn't know what I wanted, I'm in college with a job and often spend a lot of time in my room, drawing and making games, but that doesn't mean I don't walk the park nearby or go out for errands, she made it sound like I'm a shutin. After saying I had nothing to say, I retreated to my room. She later came to show me some LGBT groups and such nearby that support you, on the one hand it's nice she cares but on the other I just wanted to be alone, when I told her as such she stomped off. It's now the next day and she's still talking about these groups and how she loves me.
My older sister who is the only family member I came out too is supporting me and says she's sorry, and my friends are in the same boat. However one of them said I'm the asshole, because it's clear my mother is concerned. I get it, but I wasn't ready to come out, I never wanted to tell her and it's not her business whom I mess around with, I feel like she violated my privacy. So reddit AITA for still being mad at my mother for snooping on my phone?

hey! i've been looking into my own personal genealogy since last november and my family actually moved from Poland to New York sometime around 1909. this is all fine and dandy, really cool actually as its my great-great-great grandma who came here with her 2 kids
only problems are these: I can't find jackall on her or her husband's family! I've looked anywhere I possibly can, and her maiden name doesn't even seem like it exists outside of the legitimate proof that she has existed at one point in time. her husband doesn't even have a birth year. their kids, however, they have all their information that i'd ever want (i mainly use findagrave as i find it the most helpful).
then, i was looking more into their lineage last night and i kinda realize that at some point in time, the town i theorized they may have came from (an hour from warsaw) had probably been created during the era of Prussia (our last name literally means 'village of the Prussians', apparently)
my ggg grandma was born in 1850, and her husband was probably at the very least 5-10 years older then her because he looks relatively old in the photo i have of the two of them, and he died like 30 years before she did (1893/1923). so i'd put him at... 1835? im not too sure. just a wide guess right now and i've looked for more information on him but he just doesn't seem to exist save for the ONE image i have as proof as him ever existing. like some Coco type shit. i've tried findagrave, ancestry, familysearch, and probably more that i cant think of right now but i can still only find him on findagrave (and i was the one who made the page for him! ugh)
but either way, with the constant territory changes between Prussia and Poland at the time:
is it a likely scenario that there just isn't proof of family ever even existing before them?
im sorry this is more of a rant then a question, but im honestly just so confused. im open to answering more in depth questions. i also just don't understand if this makes me prussian in some way, or if im still only polish. or if im a weird forgotten blend of the two

-This session was the least eventful of them all yet. So, instead of just giving you guys the run through of what happened, i'm also telling some other stuff about the campaign i haven't said before.
-So, the session began at the riverside with a battle against the Rifleman.
-Marina is thrown to the ground by Karin in order to protect her (She was paralyzed during the first round of combat due to her hoplophobia).
-The party gets very lucky since the Rifleman gets a critical failure during his first turn, which makes his gun malfunction.
-The combat ends with the Rifleman running away since he lost his tactical advantage.
-The players traverse Old Town East, where they see all the Moonscorched People tearing at their face while mumbling about the "green".
-They stealthily avoid the Moonscorched Ghoul (They are blind, so they could only really find the players through noise). And unfortunately miss the Wretch's room (I was very excited to welcome them to the shitpit of Prehevil).
-They get to the house with the TV room (Yes, i did do the whole "You arrive at the TV room business), which ends up being the Rifleman's house. However, they stealthily get behind him and kill him with a shot to the back of the head.
-Also, Daan almost steps in the bear trap (I had them navigate in the dark, since the house was darkened).
-They get to Central Old Town, but don't go to the Mayor's Manor. Instead, they enter the house with the basement, where they end up running into Levi, who runs away from them.
-They explore and loot the basement, and end up finding a lot of documents. They were: Occult Grimoires, 'man in dreams' flyer, Prehevil Document, the truth under the moonlight and Mahavre.
-Daan obtains a bonesaw, and Karin gets very lucky while looting and gets the freaking Bolt Cutters (She had only a 1% chance of getting it as loot, not counting the fact she had to be successful in a Luck roll to even be able to get anything at all).
-The session ends with them getting to Old Town West and fighting the Moonscorched Villager with the Pipe by the coffins. Daan ends up being beat up pretty badly by him. The villager gets killed by Karin using her last bullet. (She got the Rifleman's rifle beforehand, but it was broken, something she only realized after trying to use it during the fight.
-- FACTS ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN--
-I am a veteran DM, however this is my first time running Call of Cthulhu.
-The players, as i said before, chose Daan, Karin and Marina as their characters. However, i gave them the liberty to come up with most things about their characters, giving only vague hints about their personalities (They ended up being very similar anyway, which is surprising since none of them ever heard of F&H before the campaign started).
-Also, i didn't force the 'canon' names on them. Because of that, only Daan ended up with his actual name from the game. As such, in my campaign, Karin is named 'Leah' and Marina is named 'Cindy' (Yeah, it was weird at first, but it ended up sticking).
-I had to translate everything to Portuguese (Our first language) and my players said i did a great job so far (I hope they're right).
-We play on roll20, and try to make a session per week (emphasis on 'try').
-As i said before, this is the first time they've ever heard of Fear & Hunger, so the lore and everything is unknown to them.
-Karin's (Or rather, Leah's) player is writing a in-character memoir detailing everything that happens during the sessions, and it is as funny as it sounds (Picture Karin rambling about Bremen at every turn in written form).
-Every Player Character has a phobia: Daan has Erotophobia, Karin has Pyrophobia, and Marina has Hoplophobia.
-Karin has 35 Body, which means she's the shortest Player Character (She insists on calling Marina 'kid' even though she's shorter than her).
-Actually, Karin doesn't refer to anyone by their name, and instead gives them nicknames, some that stand out are:
•She calls Daan 'Doctor'
•She calls Marina 'Kid'
•She calls Abella 'Big Girl'
•She calls Tanaka 'Hat guy'

Back for more help from the collective wisdom. We are narrowing down names for Sylvie's future brother. Our front runner right now is Elliot. Other's getting strong consideration are Silas and Theodore.
My problem is this - with Sylvie we really thought it out (probably overthinking to a fault), picking a name that wasn't overly popular, had meaning behind it (with the nature connection) but was more subtle with said meaning. My wife and I both have very common names that were chosen because our parents saw them on a list and liked them, with no deeper meaning, and I've always wanted my kids' names to have more to them. Unfortunately, that's the same way we've reached the options on our list right now.
I'm struggling with inspiration this time around. We haven't really found a nature name we like in the same way as Sylvie but I don't know where else to look for a deeper meaning. Might use nature for the middle name instead.
Any thoughts on how to get past our impasse? Happy to provide more info if deemed relevant.

So I just got my P’s and I’m already a pretty confident driver but also cautious. Anyway I’m 18 and my step brother is 28 and for a bit of background my step brother had been trying to get his licence for 10 years. He had been on his learners and he never drove. Untill I got my Learners and my stepdad started taking me on drives. But I guess my step brother got jealous because suddenly he wanted to get his license. So my stepdad gave us 2 driving lessons each a week. Now I was keen on mine and went whenever I could. However my step brother kept making excuses as to not do his lessons. Now before this he had gotten 100 hours which is what you need, but the thing is it took him 8 years and he went for his driving test but failed for speeding and his excuse was “I was looking at the road” which is fine, but he wasn’t paying attention to anything else, not the lights, signs or other cars. Literally he was looking at the black tar and that’s it.
So yea, he has had plenty of opportunities to get his license and he’s just procrastinated for so long.
Anyway this happened a few days ago, about a week after I passed my drivers test and I was gonna go and buy some ice cream, because I can. And my stepbrother comes up to me and asks “can you drop me off at my interview?” And i straight up said “no”
He then got annoyed and said “but why? I’m your step brother.” And I replied with “and? You should have gotten your license ages ago. Take a bus or something and not running around after you because you refused to get your license”
He replied “but I need to get to this interview it’s in 10 minutes” and I replied “well you should have left earlier, I’m not wasting my time on someone who is old enough to look after themselves, now grow up and find another way to your job interview” I then hopped in my car, locked it and drive off
Now I know that a bit mean, but he’s nearly 30 and he’s expecting an 18 year old to run after him because he was to lazy to get his license

Welcome back once more, for our final discussion of Armadale. I apologize again for the discussion being late. Last week, my excuse was that I had to spend time with my sister's family, including a labradoodle. This week, I am dog-sitting my mother's beagle, who has separation anxiety and gas. I am horribly sleep-deprived because this dog insists on sleeping next to my bed every night, snoring loudly and farting. Speaking of people breathing in poison in their sleep, let's get to the recap:
Allan has just set off for the Adriatic, with his cash converted to gold, obviously the result of Manuel's suggestions. Lydia and Ozias have been transferred to Turin by Ozias's employer, and Lydia pretends to have gotten a letter from her mother, asking her to come home, so she has an excuse to go back to London. Once there, she checks the newspaper for any articles or obituaries indicating that Allan has died. She also finds Mother Oldershaw's new address, but decides not to visit her.
After a few days, she finally gets the news she's been hoping for. Allan's yacht sunk off the southern coast of Italy, and everyone on board perished. Her next step is to write to Bashwood:
My dearest Bashwood,
I desire you... I mean, I desire to *meet with you... to apologize for my previous behavior towards you. I have foolishly made the mistake of marrying an immature child. If only I had married a real man (realness not necessarily extending to his teeth and hair)!*
Please, do not show this letter to anyone. Let us meet clandestinely.
Sincerely,
Lydia Armadale (note the last name)
Lydia then considers the marriage certificate, and realizes a glaring flaw in her plan: Ozias's handwriting looks nothing like Allan's. In a panic, she decides that her only option is to get advice from Mother Oldershaw. Unfortunately, Mother Oldershaw appears to have found God, and no longer wants anything to do with Lydia's plans. (Of course, she refuses to give Lydia the signed paper that she was going to use to extort money from Lydia if her plans succeeded.)
While leaving Oldershaw's, Lydia runs into Dr. Downward... excuse me, Dr. Le Doux, totally legitimate sanitarium owner. She realizes that he may be able to advise her, and asks to meet him later at the sanitarium. The sanitarium is basically what you'd expect a 19th-century sanitarium to be: creepy old house with shelves containing jars of preserved "creatures," a "galvanic apparatus" for providing electric shocks, etc. No patients yet, though.
Lydia tells the doctor her story, leaving out the worst details (he doesn't know that she's the reason the yacht sunk, or that her husband goes by the fake name "Ozias Midwinter"). Downward agrees to assist her by claiming to be a witness to the marriage... for a fee of six hundred pounds. Lydia agrees, and he assists her in sending a letter to Thorpe Ambrose, claiming to be Allan's widow.
The next day, Lydia gets a visit from Bashwood, who delivers the news that Neelie is beside herself with grief, and Mr. Darch is handling the matter of the inheritance, which was going to go to Allan's cousin, before Lydia announced her claim.
Bashwood returns a few days later with a shocking letter from Yugoslavia: Allan is alive! This is where I'd normally try to write a funny version of the letter, but nothing I could possibly write would be funnier than the actual letter's opening line: "I have been the victim of a rascally attempt at robbery and murder." Yes, "rascally." Oh, Allan, never change. One of the would-be murderers took pity on Allan and didn't securely board up his cabin, so he was able to escape instead of sinking with the yacht.
Lydia turns to Downward for help.
Downward: What if we trap Allan in the sanitarium?
Lydia: And murder him?
Downward: WTF, no. We get him to agree to not press legal charges against us.
Lydia: And then we murder him?
Downward: I have so many regrets about teaming up with you
Lydia: How do we catch him?
Downward: You could get Bashwood to lurk around the train station and intercept him before anyone else sees him. Have him tell Allan that Miss Milroy was sent here because she was driven insane by her grief for him.
Lydia: Can we murder Allan and Miss Milroy?
Downward: I am running an unlicensed sanitarium under a false name, and even I think you're unhinged.
Lydia: Gwilty as charged
Downward: But wait, what if he doesn't agree immediately, and we have to keep him here for months? What if I have actual patients at the time, and they report us?
Lydia: What if...
Downward: ...please don't say "murder"
Lydia: ...what if he had an accident?
Downward: Oh. Well, if it was an "accident," that would be okay. I don't know how an accident could happen, though, if you aren't an inmate here.
Lydia: I'll think about it
Meanwhile, Bashwood keeps vigil at the train station, until one day he sees... Ozias, who is searching for Lydia because she's stopped writing to him. While they talk to each other, Bashwood can't contain his shock at hearing that Lydia is Ozias's wife, and accidentally calls her "Mrs. Armadale," which understandably makes Ozias suspicious, so he follows Bashwood to see where he goes, which of course leads him straight to Lydia. Lydia pretends she was never married to Ozias, and Ozias faints from the shock.
Lydia heads straight to the sanitarium, tells Downward she's going to be an inmate, and asks for a sleeping draught. Downward prepares the draught, but first places yellow liquid in a purple flask. He then informs Lydia of what he thinks they should say at the inquest after Allan dies: The two of them knew he hadn't drowned, but when he arrived in England, they decided to trap him in the sanitarium because, shortly after his marriage to Lydia, Allan had starting having a delusion that he was engaged to Neelie. Once in the sanitarium, Downward diagnosed Allan with an incurable and fatal brain ailment, and that's what killed him.
Downward has scheduled a "Visitors' Day" so that people will witness Lydia as an inmate in the asylum. The visitors are mostly women, because life as a woman in Victorian England was so boring, they had nothing better to do than go to sanitariums to gawk at the mentally ill people and see where they will eventually live when the hysteria finally drives them mad. (I am only barely paraphrasing. The actual quote is "In the miserable monotony of the lives led by a large section of the middle classes of England, anything is welcome to the women which offers them any sort of harmless refuge from the established tyranny of the principle that all human happiness begins and ends at home.")
Downward shows them around the sanitarium and explains how it will be run, including only allowing novels that make people feel comfortable. (I assumed this was an intentional satire of Wilkie's critics, and the notes in the Oxford World's Classics edition confirmed this.)
But then Downward gave a sales pitch that damn near sold me on his sanitarium. "I throw up impregnable moral intrenchments between Worry and You. ... Will ten minutes’ irritation from a barking dog or a screeching child undo every atom of good done to a nervous sufferer by a month’s medical treatment? There isn’t a competent doctor in England who will venture to deny it!" Considering I almost couldn't post last week's discussion because of a few hours' exposure to two loud children and a labradoodle, I'm about ready to self-diagnose with hysteria and deranged lunacy.
He also explains that while the bedrooms lack fireplaces, they're heated with hot water. This impressed me because I've read about Victorian insane asylums not having fireplaces in the bedrooms (since the inmates might burn themselves), but I always assumed this meant that the inmates were cold in the winter. But wait... the bedroom also has secret controls that let him open, close, and lock the window and door from the outside, and a vent that lets him pump gas into the room. Whaaat? I rescind my diagnosis of hysteria and deranged lunacy. I want nothing to do with this.
After the tour is finished, Downward demonstrates to Lydia how to prepare the poison, and then breaks the bottle so that his assistant (who doesn't know about the purple flask) will think there's no more of that chemical in the house.
Meanwhile, Ozias is stalking Bashwood at the train station. He thinks Lydia is cheating on him, and Bashwood is waiting for Lydia's lover. But then he sees Bashwood with Allan. After confronting the two of them, he learns Bashwood's story about having to take Allan to Neelie in the sanitarium. Realizing that Lydia is probably still behind Bashwood's actions, Ozias insists on going with the two of them. On arriving at the sanitarium, Allan is informed that Neelie cannot see him until the morning, but he and Ozias are welcome to spend the night: Allan in Room Four, and Ozias in Room Three.
Lydia sets Bashwood up to spy on Allan's door from a room with a grate in its door. She tells him to make sure Allan stays in his room all night. Later, watching from the grate, Bashwood observes Ozias leave his room and examine the fumigating apparatus connected to Allan's room. Then Ozias stuffs his handkerchief in the grate, blocking Bashwood's view, before going into Allan's room and convincing Allan to switch rooms with him.
Later that night, Lydia returns and asks Bashwood if anything happened. Too afraid to tell her about the handkerchief, he tells her nothing happened, and she dismisses him to bed. After almost convincing herself to not go through with it, she then starts the process of pouring the poison at five minute intervals. While waiting for one of the intervals to pass, she notices Ozias's handkerchief and realizes that Bashwood lied to her. She checks in Room Three, and finds Allan asleep where Ozias should be.
In a panic, Lydia rushes into Room Four and drags the unconscious Ozias out. She then continues to pour the poison, writes a last letter to Ozias, and locks herself in the room.
We end with an epilogue that rapidly ties up all the random loose ends. Lydia has been buried in a nearly unmarked grave. The doctor is apparently still running his sanitarium. Allan and Neelie will be married in the spring. Mrs. Milroy doesn't have much longer to live, but she's undergone a personality change for some reason and she and the Major are happy for once. Ozias is recovering and living with Allan. Mother Oldershaw is a religious speaker, apparently. Bashwood has gone insane. Manuel drowned.
But wait, one last thing: Wilkie has something to say to us. He wants us to know that he intended the dream to be left up to interpretation. Thanks for handing me a discussion question like that, Wilkie. He also shares a weird-ass story about how, after he'd finished the rough draft and while the story was in the middle of serialization, several people were poisoned in their sleep on a boat called The Armadale. Okay, Wilkie. Thank you for that incredibly weird anecdote.

It’s been a while since I’ve been excited about a guy; actually, I dont even remember when the last time was. But since I still have hope (or maybe I’m just naive), here I am trying my luck again. Maybe I’ll find my new favorite stranger tonight. Probably not. But it doesn’t hurt to try!
I’m looking for someone mid-late thirties, single, with a fun personality and able to hold his end of a conversation. Pretty smiles get you extra points. Ideally, there’ll be a spark and you’ll skip the half-assed, low effort messages.
I might be your new favorite stranger if you:

• can handle feisty, witty and flirty;
• find it cute, and not at all annoying, that I ask you to watch hockey with me (LGR!);
• think pineapples have no business in pizzas;
• enjoy late nights talking about everything and anything.

So, if this made you think “hey, that’s me!”, I definitely want to meet you. Introduce yourself, including your name, age, what you look like, and just for good measure - let me know your favorite ice cream flavor. That’s how I’ll know you read this whole thing and are interested for sure. :)

First off, let me say, be kind. To everybody in my life, I am something, and it is utterly exhausting. Sims is my escape. So this stupid stuff is really bothering me. Some people drink, smoke, or have a midlife crisis- I live vicariously through my Sims. So just be kind.
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Okay, to the main reason for this post. 1- Script Mods ARE enabled. I have quadruple checked. 2- I have posted my locations of the WW folder. It is NOT too many folders deep. 3- I have tried using Itchio AND CC to download. Itchio gives me the error message posted with this. The Wicked.CC gives me the other image saying that it is there at the main menu page when starting the game. 4- At no point does the WW menu show up on my Sim's phone, or when I click on bed, etc. It is simply not there. All my other mods work, including the Hoe It Up mod. I also tried removing all mods except WW and yielded the same results. So even with the message showing up at the start-up menu, it's simply not there. Anyone else encountered this issue? The Help page for WW is useless to me. Oh, and I deleted all cache.