When you're rich enough, you get perks you can only dream of. Literally. But somehow, my paradise turned into hell.
Have you ever had a dream so amazing, you wished you could relive it? Explore it? Relish it? Well, when you're rich enough, you don't have to wish. It's a reality thanks to dream banks. You may have heard of them and their pricy services, which include recording, saving, and projecting dreams.
For example, if you'd like a dream recorded, you can book one of their luxurious suites for the night, where the dream techs will fit you with a special helmet and leave you to rest. The next morning, they'll replay the recorded dream for you via the helmet and ask if you want to shell out the extra bucks to save it. If you don't, they'll delete it and you can pay to book for another time to try again.
If you do decide to save it, you must select an item within the dream that will act as the exit key. (This will come in handy during projections.) While still wearing the helmet, you must touch the item, and the dream techs will label those electric signals as the key.
Afterwards, everything is saved under your name, and you can now relive your dream at any time by booking a suite for three, five, or eight hours. Unlike recordings, during projections, you don't have to wait for sleep to come. After you enjoy a snack of your choice, the helmet is fitted and you're immediately transported to your dream, where you have free will and can enjoy it at your leisure. And if you ever need to leave early, this is when you touch the key, which will shut down the helmet right away.
In my case, the key is the stegosaurus leather rug I have hanging on the wall of my throne room. I never have a reason to touch it otherwise, making it a perfect key. I've also never had to touch it. Experiencing life as an all-powerful, worshipped being who lives on my own planet and hunts dinosaurs in my spare time, I relished my dream to the last second.
Yes, the fees are exorbitant, but at the time, I felt it was worth it. The techs were skilled, the system was sleek, and the dreams were private. Each could only be unlocked by the unique brainwaves of the dreamer.
Or so I thought.
My literal nightmare began when I booked a five-hour projection on a rainy Friday afternoon. After taking a sip of champagne to wash down the cranberry brie bites, I settled into the cool silk sheets with a smile. My usual dream tech smiled back as she fastened my helmet, and the last thing I heard was her wishing me pleasant dreams before I was plunged into darkness.
I waited for the split-second adjustment from reality to the dream world, and my confusion grew when I didn't find myself on my throne surrounded by fawning gods and goddesses.
Instead, I found myself in the middle of an endless street. Alone. There were no cars, no life, not even wind. Towering street lamps lined the sidewalk as far as I could see, arcing over the road and tinting everything an eerie red. Behind them, identical buildings stood side by side, silent, their dark, narrow windows hollow.
My pulse spiking, I whipped around. The other direction was just as endless. Uneasy confusion prickled beneath my skin. This had to be someone else's dream. The techs must have made a mistake. I didn't know how it was possible, but there was no other explanation.
My unease piqued as my situation sank in. I was in a stranger's dream and I didn't know the key. I was stuck here until my five hours ran out. Or until the techs realized their mistake. I was ready to rip them a new one once I was out, but until then, I had no choice but to wait.
I studied my surroundings with a frown before I walked over to the curb and sat down, and that was when I noticed I couldn't feel anything. I also noticed I was naked. It didn't matter. There was no one here, and none of this was real anyway.
Time passed, and I tried to distract myself from my nettled offense by humming, but no sound came out. Sitting up, I took a deep breath and screamed. Not even a squeak was heard. I slapped my hand against the ground. Nothing. This place was like a black hole of the senses.
Sighing, I lay down on my back and stared at the red light above me, wondering if I could fall asleep in a dream. I tried, but the more I wished to escape this silent, crimson prison, the more it seemed to come into focus. Soon, the utter lack of noise and movement grew from slightly unnerving to completely intolerable.
There was no way I could wait. I'd go insane. I had to get out of here. I had to find the key.
Jumping up, I ran to the nearest building and wrenched open the door, and a pitch black void greeted me. I gasped, and gasped again as it felt like my very breath was being suctioned out of my lungs. Panicking, silent wheezes rattled in my chest as I struggled to yank myself out of the vacuum, jerking my limbs and bucking my body until I toppled over backwards on the sidewalk.
Gulping in fitful breaths, I scrambled to my feet and ran down the road without looking back, my wide eyes scanning the horizon for salvation. I just wanted out of here, but the hellish path stretched on forever, making me feel like I was running in place as every identical building and street lamp mocked me. Even my silent stomping and mute panting served to draw insanity closer.
And then, a person showed up.
There, in the distance.
With my hope spurred, I raced towards them, desperate. I didn't care who they were. I needed to break this monotony.
As I got closer, hope morphed to confusion, and then to despair. The person was me. It was a mirror, propped up across the entire street.
Sweat-soaked, I slowed down to a jog before I stopped right in front of my reflection. It was me alright, naked, exhausted, and frustrated. But the eyes, something was off about the eyes. With an anxious frown, I stepped closer, staring into them, and they stared back …
… until they glanced behind me.
I gasped and jumped away, and so did my reflection … before it glanced over my shoulder again.
A chill trickled down my spine. My reflection had nothing behind it but the empty street, so I gulped and turned around, and my mouth fell open in a silent scream as a lovecraftian behemoth barrelled its way towards me. With its slick shell gleaming red beneath the lights, it slammed down one spiny tentacle after the other as its five mouths bared their dripping, concentric fangs.
Drenched in undiluted horror, tremors gripped my body as I stumbled away until my back was against the mirror. I knew death was a foolproof key in a dream, but I didn't know if this creature would kill me right away or leave me to suffer in agony until my five hours were up.
With it only inches away, I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed myself into the mirror, and my stomach flipped as I fell backwards. I opened my mouth to gasp, but there was nothing for me to draw in. Floating in an airless void, I flailed and thrashed, my wild eyes scanning the darkness for answers as I began to spin around.
Although death would free me, one of my greatest fears was suffocating. On one of my weightless rotations, a red, glass cube passed me by, and I grabbed it, hoping it was a breathing device. I brought it close to my face, and I gawked at what it held within.
Me.
Surrounded by identical buildings and red street lamps while a lovecraftian behemoth tore me apart.
Horrified, I threw the cube as far as I could and increased my efforts to escape this void. Yet all the flailing and thrashing was for naught as the darkness revealed no end. My eyesight began to go red as my lungs spasmed, and I clawed at my throat as my pulse stuttered in my chest.
The red kept growing and growing until it engulfed my entire vision, and I gave up. There was nothing to do but face my fears and die. With my straining heart lumbering, I let myself go limp as I stared at the red and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I wasn't dying.
In fact, I could breathe just fine.
Frowning, I opened my eyes, and intense unease spread through my core. Above me, a red moon had taken up the entire sky, each one of its craters crystal clear, like eyes watching me. I turned my head away, and I realized I was in a park, laying down on the grass. Sitting up, I blinked in surprise at the pond right beside me, its opaque water reflecting the moon's red light. Ducks were swimming in a circle across its surface, their movements smooth with nary a splash.
Trees surrounded us, so dense I couldn't tell when one began and the other ended. It was mind-numbingly quiet here as well, and I still couldn't feel anything or make any noise, but at least the ducks were moving. This place seemed more tolerable than the last, and I was willing to wait out my five hours here. I hoped at least an hour had passed already, but with dreams, one never knew. All I knew was that I was too exhausted to search for the key. And too scared. I didn't know whose dream this was, but they had to be masochistic if they saved this nightmare.
Curling up beside the pond, I worked on calming myself down as I watched the ducks swim in their systematic circle over and over and over. I tried counting the rotations the way one would count sheep, but that still didn't lull me to sleep. I wished I'd chosen the three-hour projection, but at least I hadn't chosen the eight-hour one.
Distorted circus music crackled around me and I jolted up, my heart ricocheting in my chest. There was finally sound, but the last thing I wanted to hear was a cliche horror movie soundtrack. Gulping, I looked around. The music was coming from the trees, and my stomach dropped when I spied a shadow behind one of them. Then another. And another. They emerged into the crimson moonlight, and my blood turned to ice.
Clowns.
I whipped around, trembling to the rhythm of my frantic pulse. They were surrounding me. Dozens of them. As classic as any clown could be. Colorful clothes, big shoes, silly hair, exaggerated makeup. I wasn't scared of clowns, as long as they were where they belonged. And they didn't belong here, staring at me with big, empty eyes and yellow, toothy grins.
I tried to convince myself that they weren't dangerous since they didn't have weapons and didn't seem monstrous, but when they took a step closer in unison, I jumped back, nearly falling into the pond. The ducks remained oblivious, still swimming in their circle. The distorted circus music got louder, and my hair stood on end when I saw the grass ripple in front of each clown. They were sending something my way through the ground.
Panicking, I jumped into the pond, and I screamed as I sank right in. There was no bottom. There was no water either. The pond was filled with red, translucent spheres, each the size of a tennis ball. Still able to breathe, I began swimming through the spheres with clumsy breast strokes, just hoping I could end up as far away from the clowns as possible.
After swimming for what felt like enough time, I tried to swim up, until I realized I had no idea which direction I was facing. Remember a trick for those stuck in avalanches, I spat, but my glob of saliva just hovered in front of me. Before panic could set in, I noticed what looked like an office desk floating amidst the spheres in the distance. After blinking a few times to make sure it was really there, I swam towards it, desperate for any change in my situation.
It was an office desk, a wooden one with carved borders and locked drawers. Tucked beneath it was a stool, and the moment I pulled it out and set it under my ass, an office replaced the red spheres.
I grunted as gravity returned, and I looked around in bewilderment at the cluttered bookshelves and grimy floors. Dust was floating everywhere, highlighted by the red light filtering in through the blinds behind me. I jumped as a clock hanging on the wall chimed. Its glass was too dirty for me to tell the time, but I was glad I could hear. I coughed at the dust. And I could make noise. I dusted my hands. And I could feel. I could even smell, which I now wished I couldn't as I wrinkled my nose at the faint stench of rot.
After failing to read the spines of some of the books on the shelves, I studied the shadowy corners of the room. A slack-jawed skeleton hung in the far end, and a faded poster with anatomical diagrams curled off a cupboard. This had to be a doctor's office. Was the creator of this dream a doctor?
A silhouette slid in front of the frosted glass door, and I gulped as the knob began to turn. A hand reached in, gripping the edge one finger at a time, and my heart dropped as I knew this horror cliche was only going to be followed by another. Having no time to think, I slid off the stool and crouched beneath the desk, my hand over my mouth as cobwebs clung to me.
Praying spiders wouldn't swarm me, I peeked through a small slit in the wood, and I froze when an emaciated nurse walked in the room. Layers upon layers of blood coated her scrubs, so much so that I couldn't even tell what color they originally were. She had no shoes. No feet either. Just ankle stubs, and my stomach turned as I heard bone clunk against the tiles.
A surgical mask covered her face, as bloodstained as her scrubs, and grimy lab goggles obscured her eyes. I was grateful, because judging by the pus leaking out of her scabbed, balding scalp, I didn't want to know what her face looked like. The closer she got, the stronger the stench of rot became, and I struggled to keep myself from retching.
She stopped halfway into the room, and I gawked at her hands. They were transforming. Her fingers elongating into razor-edged blades. She then began to hunch over, and I cringed as her spine cracked and popped until she was as bent as a candy cane, her face staring at her pelvis.
As if that wasn't unsettling enough, her head creaked as it spun around 180 degrees, now facing the front, upside down. Right after, her arms shot to the ground, and I watched with increasing dread as she bent them at the elbows and wrists so they flanked her head like distorted T-Rex arms.
She spread her fingers out and took a few more steps towards me, and I held my breath, hoping she couldn't hear my rabid heart or smell my fear. Her ankle bones clicked and clacked against the tiles as she made her way around the desk, and I cowered as my frantic eyes searched for a weapon. I found none, but I did spy a brass button beside my head.
With her legs now an arms distance away, I had nothing to lose as I jammed my thumb into the button. The back of the desk flung open, and I scrambled to my feet and dashed out from my hiding place, screaming in response to the nurse screeching behind me. Bursting through the door, I held up my fists and began punching like a maniac in fearful anticipation of a horde of nurses swarming me.
Except I was no longer in a hospital. I was in an outdoor parking lot. Alone. And judging by the roiling red clouds, a storm was brewing. After a second to collect my bearings, I dove into the closest car, thankful it was unlocked. The moment I slammed the door shut, lightning blinded me as thunder cracked and the downpour began. Sighing in relief, I tried to shake away my adrenaline, but the bloodshot eyes in my rearview mirror reignited my panic.
Before I could react, a belt snapped over my neck, pinning my head back against the headrest. With a frightened wheeze, I clawed at the leather, and I flinched as hot, heavy breath wafted across my ear. Gagging at the putrid smell, I reached over, desperate to scratch my strangler's face or poke their eyes out.
I felt their greasy hair and tried to pull it, but my fingers refused to hold on. I tried again and again, using my nails for purchase, but the strands just kept slipping out of my weak grip. Shifting focus, I tried to claw at their eyes, but it felt as though I was moving through molasses as my hand slid down their face. Once I felt a wet, bulbous eye, I tried to scratch it, but I didn't have enough strength to do anything damage.
My frustration clashed with my terror and I tried to punch them, but my arm swung back in slow motion and merely prodded a stubbly cheek. Tears welled in my eyes as I writhed and gasped, my strangler's laugh adding insult to injury. Despite knowing death will set me free, fear and self-preservation rummaged through my mind, searching for a solution. And they found one.
Hoping I had enough grip and energy, I reached down and found the reclining lever. Wrapping my fingers around it tight, I jerked it up and heaved my body back, and I gulped in a deep breath as I fell backwards, the belt now slack. Not at all prepared to face my attacker, I slipped out from beneath the belt, flung open the door, and zoomed out into the storm.
Sheets of rain obscured my vision, but not enough for me to see that the keys were left inside a red convertible. After making sure no one was hiding in the back, I jumped in, started the engine, and took off, the wheels squealing through the puddles. A sole street curled down a hill, and I took it, adrenaline pumping in waves through my quivering body.
This rush was a confusing mixture of exhilaration and apprehension. I wanted out, but I wasn't giving up. I made it this far, and I was going to survive every cliche this masochist dreamed up. Sharks? Snakes? Zombies? Bring it on. And afterwards, I was going to detail every single trial and tribulation I went through as I sued the dream bank for all the trauma they caused me.
Up ahead, the road curved, and I gasped as it ended in a cliff. I slammed the breaks, but they didn't do anything. Breaking out in a cold sweat, I slammed them again and again as I yanked the hand break as far as it would go. The car refused to slow down, and I cursed myself for not anticipating this cliche. In a move of desperation, I swerved, but it wasn't enough as the car careened over the edge and took me with it.
My heart hung in my throat as I hung on to the steering wheel, my knuckles white, my screams frozen in my lungs, the raindrops like needles. An endless body of water spread below me, and I knew sharks were my next challenge. I screwed my eyes shut as I awaited the inevitable plunge …
… and I gasped as the car crashed against the surface.
I lurched forward, and I cried out as I bashed my forehead against the wheel. Groaning, I leaned back, my ears ringing as I looked around, disoriented. I was still in the convertible, but we were right side up, having crashed into the concrete wall of an indoor garage. Blood trickled down my face and I reached up, only to feel around my head in shock.
I was wearing the helmet.
Why was it in the dream?
Or had I made it out?
I looked down. I wasn't naked. My pyjamas were plastered to my sweat-soaked skin. I was out. I looked around at the broken glass and mangled metal in confusion. But if I was finally out, why was I in a car and not between silk sheets?
I removed the helmet, and a yell from behind made me jump. I turned to see one of the dream techs running towards me. Was she always that skinny? And why were her scrubs red instead of the usual blue?
She made it to me, panting as she took the helmet out of my hands, and I wrinkled my nose at her unpleasant breath. She said I'd had a nightmare and began sleepwalking, and I'd left the dream bank and stole a car from their underground parking before she triggered a wake-up signal in the helmet, which made me crash.
I stared at her, not believing what I was hearing. I told her I'd booked a projection, not a recording, and she gave me a concerned frown and claimed the opposite. Anger replaced my confusion, and I called her a liar and accused them of misconduct, and she reminded me that dreams can only be unlocked by the dreamer.
Furious, I cursed at her as I tried to get out of the car, demanding to see my file. She was quick to tell me not to move in case I made my injuries worse as she pulled out her phone and said she was going to call an ambulance.
While I sat there and waited, fuming, I glimpsed my reflection in the dangling rearview mirror. Unease rippled beneath my skin and I sat up, grabbing the mirror and angling it to show my neck.
There was an angry red mark across it.
As though I was recently strangled.
Trembling, I tilted the mirror up.
Cobwebs. Stuck in my hair.
Dumbstruck in utter stupefaction, I scanned the rest of my body. My pyjamas were dirty and there was black under my fingernails, but the rest of my examination was cut short by tinny circus music. A chill jolted down my spine and I whipped my head to face the dream tech. That was her ringtone. She smiled as she answered the call, and I drew back at her yellow, toothy grin.
What was going on? I was out of the dream, I knew I was. Had everything been real? What had the dream bank done with me? Done to me?
Ambulance sirens wailed as they entered the underground parking, and the flashing red lights reflecting off the walls triggered my recent traumas. With terror-fueled adrenaline flooding my veins, I jerked my legs free of the wreck, jumped out of the car, and booked it, the dream tech's yells merging with the screeching sirens behind me.
SR

5 nights at aftons
4pm ,location aftons house,
Golden Freddy does a head turn to look right at Jack.” Who are you¨ Jack shouts across the room.freddy says nothing but still looks at him. Jack runs and runs as fast as he can spamming the elevator button for safety.lucky the door shuts just in time but something doesn't feel right to jack the elevator is not moving then he sees a blur an animatronic he sees but he doesn't know this one.the robot 12 ft high burt skull face razor sharp teeth and claws wires sticking out everywhere ¨who…… who ……… are you¨jack says the robot looks down at him and says ¨death jack death¨ all the sudden it attacks him biting ripping skin off him from the wires.but jack sees a logo that says afton enterprise.bleeding bad Jack escapes the elevator running out the door of the house the robot chasing him but wants he out the door the robot is flung back from something ¨hummmmmmmmm so they can't leave the house¨ jack says taunting the robot so called death.
Jack goes home to his apartment on the other side of town. When he gets home he treats the wounds trying not to scream in pain. And then he just lays down like that. Hoping nothing attacks him in his sleep.
¨hello¨ ¨ what did i do to you¨ ¨everything ̈ .errr errr errr ¨uhhhhh the pain.¨ Jack says looking at the alarm clock hitting snooze. getting out of bed jack turns on the lights to see his bandages came undone and his bed was covered in blood.later that morning jack went to the er to get stitches from the attack the nurse looks at him and says what happened to you jack just says ¨death¨ thats what happened the doctor stitches him up and sends him on his way when he drives by aftons house he sees death still waiting for him to come back in.¨not today he says¨ looking out the window.all the sudan his car exploded throwing jack in the air. Then Jack sees it land mines but why jack thinks to himself falling on the asphalt ¨i just got stitches know this¨jack screams.then he passes out.then he sees a boy getting hurt from fredy at a grand opening william shoving dead kids in the animatronics while wearing the spring trap costume then one drop of water hits the mask triggering the spinlocks crushing his body.jack wakes up to the sound of cop cars and ambulances.¨ Sir sir what happened¨ Jack just pointed at the house and said ¨him¨ the cops go over to the house while the paramedics put him in the ambulance.then cops start running from the house one cop being attacked calling for backup. Then the rest of the cops are dragged under ground by some strange mechanical tentacles.
¨what?¨ zoey says looking at jack¨is something wrong¨.jack says nothing but points behind her.zoey turns around but it's not there.”jack i think you need some rest”zoey says with a corsern face.”no no no i'm not going to sleep”jack says.but just then jack falls asleep to see he's in a room with one closet in front of him with 2 doors by it when he turns around he sees one bed behind him. he sits down waiting for something to happen. Just then he walks to one of the doors with the flashlight he just so happenly found by him. He opens the door to see if he hears or sees anything just then he hears something breathing. He turns on the flashlight to see a fredy with sharp teeth and a messed up body.Just then it runs at him terrified he quickly shuts the door and turns the flash light out. Then Freddy runs in the room and goes out the other door.he wakes up to his alarm which was for some reason set at 6 o'clock. Jack thinks nothing of it and turns on the TV to see the news is talking about the attack yesterday “police dragged under ground by strange tentacles after magor car crash”the headline said.jack didn't want to listen to it so he just turned the tv off.a few minutes later the nurse walks in and checks him out of the hospital.when zoey comes to pick him up he sees the same burnt bonnie he saw that night.when jack got in the car it was gone again.jack thought nothing of it and went on with his day.jack and zoey where trying to figure out where to finger lunch out when zoey says “how bout we go to fazbears pizzeria for lunch” as much as jack does not want to go back there he says “sure”.when they get settled in the restaurant jack sees a new chica.when the waitress comes up the order there food and talk awhile when the food comes out there's a $100 check that say your pay jack quickly takes it and stuffs it in his jacket before anyone notices.When jack and zoey leave the restaurant some guy gives jack a letter when jack gets home he reads the letter saying
Dear jack
I know about what happened with the animatronics that night so I'm giving you a second chance. So i need you to watch my house
willam afton
“Really this fool thinks i'm going to watch the house i almost died in no way”Jack says to him self.there was a knock at his door then when he opened the door it was the landlord “give me your keys you haven't paid rent for a week” he says. Jack doesn't know what to say so his mouth does it for him “5 more days and i'll have your money sir” the landlord responds with “fine but if you don't have the money i'm changing the lock” as he walks away.jack grabs his keys rights his will and goes to the house.when jack enters the house though it's different instead of being a run down dump it was beautiful marble staircase ,golden chandeliers, and instead of the robot death there was a butler at the door. When Jack went into the backyard there was a smoothie stand, a big clean pool and palm trees.william afton walks out and then shows jack the security room. There were 5 flat screen TVs for each part of the house. There were also vent cameras if he pressed shift on the keyboard.the door had 5 layers of plexi glass in case something happened .then willam showed him a secret room with a bed tv bathroom and a fridge full of hot pockets and corn on blue.soon willam left and jacks shift started to be continued.Knock knock knock jack herer at the plexiglass door jack looks to see who it is to see the butler when jack opens the door he is offered a beverage from the butler.jack kindly accept it and looks at the camera “nothing strange yet”jack thinks to himself as he takes a sip of his drink.7 o'clock hits so jack locks the door and takes a nap planning to wake up at 12.the time comes and jack gets up but before he goes in the other room he warms up some hot pockets. When Jack looks at the cameras he sees a shadow of the bonni.jack keeps the door lock just in case if something happens when he looks out the door he sees the skeleton robot waiting for it to open.``really i thought this guy was gone” jack thinks to himself when he sees the same chicka he destroyed at the pizzeria rolling around on a skateboard. Then he sees the thing he fears the most: the burnt bonnie at the door jack almost spilt his drink on him he was so scared.then he goes in his room grabs the sheet of his bed and the roll of tape off the table. Jack puts the sheet on the plexiglass door just to keep him calm during the job.Painting Jack takes a sip of his drink. 4 o'clock 5 o'clock 6 o'clock confetti covers the floor. Good job the camera says you completed your 1st night.when jack takes down the sheet to see if the robot was still there it was gone when he checked every room in the house there were no more robots.with relief jack goes in his room to take a napThe rest of the day Jack sits by the pool drinking smoothies and eating pineapple.his watch goes off 5 o'clock 5 o'clock Jack turns it off and heads inside.when he gets to his room he locks the door and takes a nap. When 7 hits he goes in the other room puts the sheet on the door and watches tick tock on his phone waiting for 6 o'clock when he hears something crawling through the vents jack grabs the nearby ax and waits when the creature comes through the vent he swings when he hears “patron sir are you trying to kill the buttlar” the vent opened and the buttlar stuck his head out and started to come in.”wait how do i know you're actually the butler you could just be a robot”jack says “i have no proof but i also trust you” the buttlar says,the buttlar comes in with a duffle bag.soda,chips,tablets,rubix cubes,and pizza.”dude how much stuff did you bring” jack says “enuf to last the rest of the week”.few hours go by and more confetti covers the floor.congrats the screen says you survived night 2.”this is only going to get harder”jack says plugging in the devices.”there's going to be more of them soon”the buttlar says. “My name's jack”jack says “brysan” the buttlar says sticking out his hand “Knock knock KNock” here at the door.the butler slowly lifts the sheet then braysan jumps back.”what is it?” Jack says looking terrified, brayson says “a…….a……..burnt bonnie suit”.”thank lord im not the only one who sees him”jack says.then the door falls on the ground leaving the sheet up still though.”quick in the vents!”brayson hollers. They quickly throw everything in the duffle bag and climb in.then they see the burnt bonnie suit walking around trying to find them then it says “jack come out” then it hits jack the voice the robot everywhere it was afton.the whole time how did he not figure that out he thinks to himself crawling through the vents.then braysan is gone “braysan!”Jack hollers, then something grabs him,“ahhh!” Jack screams trying to get the grip off then he sees it is just a robotic hand then it pulls him looking at the hand again he sees its covered in blue fur. When the arm stops dragging him he sees himself in the old axols bbq that had been closed for a while after an unknown accident.he sees the old rusted robot suits and stays away from them in case they were dangerous too.jack sees a door with a blood lock (which would require him to give it blood to open) he bangs on the door for help but nothing happens.jack walks over to the old robots to see they had many malfunctions then out of nowhere one turns on and starts singing.then the blood lock door opens and he sees a tall figure who pulls him in. In the room Jack sees braysan in the corner with a bottle of water and bandaging.”What happened to you?” Jack asks, looking terrified at braysan. “The alligator thing got me” he says.jack looks at the man and says “who are you” “names cael i'm the owner of here” jack sits down and starts eating his room tempetar smushed corn on blue from the security room.”how do we get out of here” brayson say “you can't” cael respondes.”the only way in and out are the vents but somethings in there and it doesn't want us leaving” cael says. In the corner of the room jack see vials with things like ink,wood,blue fur,piece of cloth,and metal scraps.”what's that” jack ask “things i got from other areas” says cael.”what do you mean” braysan ask.”have you heard of the backrooms if so it's kinda like that accept more monsters so far i encounter killer dolls animatronics a murder ink monster and old person zombie”but i can't get past the doll.”i think i know who made this world besides you” jack says “what do you mean” cael says “i mean william afton made this nightmare world i saw him he has the burnt bonnie suite on he wants to kill all of us do you understand!” jack hallers. “That's it i'm taking a walk” cael says.when the door closes jack hears a loud slam in the wall and then a few swear word.jack rushes out side with the ax to see caels arm has been ripped off by axol.jack gats cael back in the room and bandages it up.”OK NEW RULE YALL NO GOING OUT ALONE”braysan.Then they hear a sound outside like a blade scraping metal then the door opens.Jack,cael,and braysan stand up fast to fight.then they see a person with 2 swords and one robot arm in his hand.jack looks up in shock and says “I thought i killed you” “what” the person says “i hit you with my car 5 months ago” jack says “that was you” “yes” “then you'll die” the person runs towards jack with both swords by his sides .before he can hit jack cael stops him with the ax and says”he's a survivor he can help us find the way out so lets not kill each other” the person looks and looks angrily and says “fine he can live but one wrong move and he's dead got it” “what's your name” jack ask “orion” “Orion cannon”orion says sitting down with axols arm attaching it to cael with the remaining muscles and bone left when he's done the arm works how cael needs it to like a normal arm.when he gets up he grabs a pull string bag and canteen while putting food in the bag jack ask “what are you doing” “going back to level 3 there's been crying in there for a while trying to find where its coming from” orion says “but what if there's more robots” jack says “dont worry theres not just killing toys like this big blue one and a pink a big spider and lots more” orion answers “but how do you get there” braysan ask “the vents” “then we should all go” jack says “why you have a death wish or something” orion says ¨yes yes i do¨ jack says ¨after all i survived i'm sure i should live till we escape ¨ ¨fine let's go then we got to be back by 8 or were dead¨orion says.they climb up in the vents and start crawling to the next level when they get out they see a abandoned toy factory and here crying¨where is that coming from¨cael ask ¨that's the thing there's no human life here¨orion says. After awhile of walking the floor fell in on cael dropping him straight down when every one checks to see if he alive they hear ¨y'all come down hear and bring flashlights¨ so orion past out flashlights and they all jumped down when they landed they turned on the flash lights to see a girl with ripped up clothes and cuts all over her “Who are you” the girl says looking terrified “orion,jack,cael,braysan.”orion says staring the girl down “were looking for survivors”cael quickly says looking rather nervous “and who are you” braysan says “gabby”the girl says.”ok well you can join us we have food and soda”cael said.”thanks but i'm good”gabby said getting up.orion quickly pulled a sword from his bag and gave it to gabby “how many of those things do you even have”braysan said in shock “about 50 at least” orion said “yall we need to get going we don't have long till it comes out” gabby says “till what comes out” cale says “the spider”gabby said “wait what does it look like”jack says “its pink 4 arms and is plastic”gabby says “kind of like the toy from when i was a kid mommy long legs” braysan replies.”well if that's the thing we need to leave”orion says.”where are you children” a voice says. “RUN!” gabby hallers. The group runs straight to the vent climbing as fast as they can. Eventually they get back to base.”welp we're screwed” jack says “sissy”orion says.”ill show u a sissy after i kick your” “stop!” ceal says “if were going to survive we need to get along last thing we need is orion skinning jack” “so you're saying i'm too weak to beat him in a fight” jack says in anger “no i'm just saying orion will cut your head off your body and cook u over a fire faster than u can say a word” cale says back “know what this is stupid i'm leaving” jack says walking out “well should we remind him of the robots”braysan says “maybe later” gabby responds later y=the group hears bloody scream from outside “orion” cale says “go save him before he bleeds out” “fine but i don't want to” orion responds but when orion walks out he sees its just a cat “O my god your scared of a cat” orion says laffing taking jack back in the room.letter orion tells everyone how jack was scared of the cat.then they get some rest.that morning when they realize jack was gone.”we can't let him die!” gabby says “yes we can we just don't look for him “ orion says “one more negative comet about jack and you'll look for him yourself” cael says in anger.when the group gets there gear ready they head outside when they climb in the vent there was lots of blue fir and blood terrified they followed it.when they got to the end of the trail they see a drop out of the vent when they got out they saw they were in a old studio everything though was black and white and ink was everywhere. After looking around for a while they found bacon soup and a poster that said wilson the slayer of the ink demon.”¨ahh!What was that? ``Cale said, jumping back.''what do you mean"Orion responds "something just ran past my legs".Then a black goo spider jumped at gaby 'get off me! Get it off me!"she screamed "calm down "orion said, cutting it in half with a sword.then the black goo on the floor disintegrated.''wow what was that"braysan said, amazed. "Proof that we were not alone"cale said.``well then let's find the mastermind behind it"braysan said.``bet it's afton"Orion said.after a while of exploring they heard a sound it was laughing not from something funny just laughing like a crazy person. When they looked around the corner they saw jack on the floor in a ball laughing nonstop “we need to get him out of here” cale said slowly going towards jack but then an animatronic face opened up and started screaming at them “that's not jack”bryson said “ya this place must be here to scare and confuse us we need to go back to the shelter before we all go crazy” the group started heading back to the shelter when they cot to the shelter they all got food and went to sleep.``Thump!” what was that gabby said getting out of bed just to see no one was there where did they go gaby touht getting on a jacket heading out just to see all their bodys dead on the floor with jack and some burt rabbit suit standing next to him then she woke up “so should we go back to the mall again to find jack or to the mansion” they heard orion saying “we shouldn't look for jack” gabby said “why” cael responded “this dream i had yalls dead bodys were piled up outside and he was standing there with a burnt rabbit suit next to him” gabby said “i saw that rabbit suit at the mansion he tried to get in the room with us” bryson said.``then we should go do the mansion” cael said packing extra materials in his bag “maybe we could find who is in that rabbit suit” orion said. The group eventually got to the mansion and started exploring they saw the room in shreds the bed was ripped up the tvs ripped off the wall and claw marks in the wall the group headed down stairs and saw a body not anybody a child's body when they got closer the saw it was crying orion pulled his sword out and ask her “what's wrong are you hurt” the little kid said “he's coming” then they saw a burt rabbit suit standing where the kid was. The burt rabbit suit just tilted his head and started waveying at them then they saw jack. Jack was covered in blood with a knife in his hand smiling not like he was happy but like he was crazy then gabby screamed the group looked over and saw the kid dead on the floor with blood oozing out of it. “You monster” Orion said, pulling out a sword and taking a slash the head came off the suit just for them to realize that wasn't the real suit. Jack then charged at Orion with the knife Orion then stabbed him with a sword in the leg making him go to the ground. The group fled while hearing Jack scream in pain “we can't just leave him there” gabby said terrified as they ran “yes we can he just tried to murder us and he killed a child and he's not going to die just be in pain for a while” orion said. When the group got back to the base they all went to sleep.the next morning they woke up and got ready soon they went back to the mansion to see if jack was still there but he was not but the sword was on the ground covered in a green substance. Cael put the substance in a beaker and back in his bag. They headed back and tested what the substance was. It would only respond to heat by trying to get out.”I don't think that was jack you stabbed Orion” cael said. “What do you mean it was his face his body how” orion responded. This substance is alive and we saw the bunny suit was fake so what if jack was fake” cael said. “That makes science” gabby said. Then orion slashed the wall the substance ozzed out of it. “This is all fake” Orion screamed “all of it is”. “Calm down orion there must be a reason” then jack walked through the door fast orion stabbed him in the throat more of the substance oozing out of it and jack smiled before turning into a pile of the green substance. The ozz started crawling away

Ok here’s the situation: I did 2.5 years In industry(AP, basic recs), 3.5 years in public (BDO), have CPA, then got a dream job in industry at a commodity trading house( 100k, 20% bonus- low balling what it would of been based on the other senior accountants getting 30-35%, and other wild benefits). I got paranoid that they were going to fire me because I got logged out of net suite one night( turns out was just a glitch) , and ended up quitting the next morning to avoid the embarressment of getting fired . This was the worst mistake of my life, and am addressing the obvious mental implications of doing that, because ya that was stupid. So anyways , I quickly got another job at a company owned by private equity, which are a dime a dozen making a 100k, but it turns out it was just doing payroll journal entries so I just quit after my first week. Ok so next I just interviewed at a pretty big injury law firm, have approx 500 employees, do a little over 100 mil in Rev, and the offer is for 110k. The recruiter presented it as 90, but the firm has been doing everything on a cash basis since their existence 20 years ago, and since they just got a large loc , they need an audit now, and have to convert to accrual. During the interview I communicated that I had done many first year opening balance sheet audits, and have helped convert companies from cash to accrual, so I guess the guy liked me and when I rejected the offer at 90, went to 100, then when rejected that went to 110. So the issues with this job are obviously there’s going to be a lot of work with having a first year audit and doing cash to accrual( though that’s not really that hard), they just got a 401k plan and haven’t instituted a match, and then also the PTO is a little shitty( 15 days and only 8 holidays). Additionally, is working at a law firm not as good as other industries for my accounting career, mainly asking because it’s just service based , and I’m kind of used to doing manufacturing/retail/, and service seems like it would be so easy to the point of it not being legit, I don’t know. Also law firms are sketch and don’t want to be involved in anything not ethical . Sorry I know this is long and don’t really know how to summarize in a TLDR. Thanks ahead for the advice!

“I always find a way to say the wrong things, I wish that we were laying in the same sheets but lately you’ve been acting like you hardly know me” (Song: shut up my moms calling; by- hotel ugly) Senior sunset memories: got to fucked up he had to drive me home (thank god for him) held my hand home, small heartfelt lecture, long hug. Hoping I didn’t kiss him while intoxicated. I don’t know a lot but I know I feel something special around him who knows could be the flu I hope we are at least friends forever I don’t know what to do without him I saw him yesterday and I feel physical pain not seeing him. It hurts I’ve never felt this way about anyone That day after safe and sober when he called me and I told him how I felt about our little tussle and he apologized as we watched the sunset. Two different places same view. I wish I could live through every memory again They’ve got nothing on me I’m not dreaming I never say what comes to mind The wind is blowing. It’s raining like crazy. Yet I feel like I can only think of him. Why? Fuck I hate this He probably doesn’t like me It was nice being able to feel him though. Yesterday when he came over for the first time. I made him dinner. We tried to watch a movie but the storm knocked out the WiFi. So we watched a video on his phone. I nuzzled myself onto his shoulder. I could feel the way he breathed. The way he smells, he already smells good. Just that is enough to keep my mind busy for weeks. The small interactions we have. I bought CONDOMS. Why? To be prepared bc ya never know what if he randomly confessed his love for me. Sorry that was crazy. Like genuinely crazy. I don’t know I crave his touch. His hugs. Anything. Maybe because I don’t get enough. I don’t know.
(Thank you for reading if you got this far. I hate having feelings lol)

It has been a few year since this happened, and I've spent that time reflecting on it all and trying to make sense of it. Now it's going up on reddit.
Back in 2015, I began my journey as a new DM. I had never been able to be a player for longer than one or two session since for whatever reason the games I tried to join would just collapse, but I figured running my own game would prevent this - I was excited. Joining me were my two IRL best friends, and one other guy that our friend group hung out with, but with whom I was not particularly close. Let's call these people E., C., and A..
E. and I grew up together. Our parents went to school together when they were kids. We had know each other for decades and had been close friends since high school. E. was the ultimate nerd in our group, but he had a very short attention span. He would go on wild deep dives into obscure things, then get board and never come back to it.
C. and I met in high school. Over a period of a decade he became my closest friend. The lengths I went to just to be a good friend to him seem ridiculous now in hindsight, but he had schizophrenia, so I always tried to cut him some slack since his grasp on reality was tenuous at best.
A. and I had very little in common, but he was/is a genuinely good guy. He's the sort of guy that would give the shirt off his back to a homeless man, and then only feel good about it if nobody saw him do it. A. wasn't here to play D&D, he only wanted to hang out with C., and so began a 5 year long struggle to make him learn his character sheet. But, that's not what this post is about.
Fast forward to 2018. I'm running the game. I've poured my heart and soul into this game, and I've never worked harder on anything ever in my life. Work prevents us from playing every week, yet slowly but surly we are advancing into the higher levels. Weird things have been happening IRL though. Out of game C. has started acting strangely and being distant. C. has demanded to switch out characters about every 3 months, and it's beginning to become impossible to keep up with his countless still living (now NPC) characters with 20 page backstories and 50+ member families that are still impacting the world. E. has started going on weird political rants about racial supremacy (blacks and whites, and others too). I chalked up C.'s behavior to him trying to cope with his mental health issues. As for the weird stuff E. was doing, I just tried to ignore it and hoped he would get board and move on to something else. A. still doesn't know what an attack roll is. I patiently explain it to him almost every week. He's acting normal though, and has actually started trying to role play.
2019 rolls around. I'm still running my campaign - now going on 4 years into the story, but this will take a back seat for now. E. has started his own game, and invited me to be a player. E. is still going on rants about his bizarre racial/cultural cleansing though enslavement and murder nonsense IRL. It has actually gotten a bit worse. I try to talk to him about it to hopefully snap him out of it, but I fail to get through to him. I still end up joining E.'s campaign, figuring I'll have time later to help my friend come back to his senses. He introduces me to a new person, who also happens to be a girl that he likes. She is also a player in his new campaign. She seems nice at first, but as time goes on I notice she keeps making passive aggressive comments about me. The more I try to just ignore it, the more aggressive and the less passive those comments get. After a few weeks, I decide to interrupt one of her snide remarks and ask her what her issue is. She flatly denies everything and says I'm imagining it.
A few months pass. By this time I've tried to ignore her, to appease her, and to directly confront her when she calls me a slur, or tells me I don't count as a human being. Nothing stops the behavior, and I'm getting very frustrated and close to dropping out of E.'s game. C. says nothing when this stuff happens and it bothers me. E. refuses to do anything about what's going on. I ask E. repeatedly to put his foot down, but he won't. Privately E. admits that he knows his (now girlfriend) has been lashing out at me and that it's a problem, but he tells me that she has been sucking his dick a lot, and he doesn't want to mess that up. Enraged by this betrayal, I go talk to C.
During this whole time (many months), C. has been extremely withdrawn. I've noticed him and E. having secret conversations behind my back, but they're friends too so I didn't pay it very much attention. Now however, as I spill my frustrations to C., he tells me to my utter shock that he doesn't want to take a side, since he has joined E.'s new religion. I ask him what he is talking about, and he tells me about the "religion" that he, E., and E.'s girlfriend are part of. The more C. describes it, the more it sounds like some kind of Jim Jones bullshit. The cult openly preaches and calls for the torture, enslavement, and mass murder of "the bad ethnic groups".
I drop out of E.'s game, but tell C. and E. that I will still be friends with them, and I'm not going to give up on changing their mind about all this weird shit they started believing. Internally, I was holding out hope I could snap them out of it.
2020 arrives. I'm still running my campaign with A., C., and E., though only intermittently - perhaps once a month at most. Interpersonal tensions are very high. I've been taking every opportunity out of game to try to convince them that slavery and mass murder is morally wrong (never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would need to). They argue that they would be doing these races a favor, and that it will usher in a global utopia once the cult has purged all those who oppose them. I dedicate all my time and spend months on end trying to break my friends out of the cult.
Meanwhile, A. is totally oblivious to what has been going on for the last two years. Instead, he is completely focused on the game. He has not only started role playing his character, but has actually (after 5 years!) learned how his character works. A. has become invested in the game after learning that the reason the government has been hunting his character, is that he is a clone of a super soldier that accidently gained sentience. A.'s character has finally tracked down the secret laboratory of the evil nobleman that destroyed the life of the non cloned version of him. The next session was to be the final boss fight of the story arc.
Unfortunately, that session never came. A few days before the session, C. called me and told me it was time for me to convert. He told me I needed to take poison to prove I was serious about converting to his religion, and if I didn't, he wouldn't be friends with me. I told him "No". He hung up, and I never heard from C. again. The next day E. called me to say we couldn't be friends anymore. I never heard from E. again either. I have no idea what happened to either of them, and I miss them to this day. We had a lot of history before all the bad stuff happened.
I offered to do a solo epilogue session for A.'s character, but he was pretty upset when he found out what had happened, and ultimately he decided the game should end for good on the last session's cliff hanger. We still talk every once in a while - I'll call to wish him a Merry Christmas or Happy Birthday, that kind of stuff.
Following everything that happened, I vowed to never run a game again. I poured my soul into that game, and it was ripped to shreds by the people I loved. It hurt too much to ever consider running another game.
And yet, it's been a few years now. The anger and confusion has slowly subsided. I've discovered a wonderful new group of people online that I play with. We've actually finished a few short campaigns together! They are not the same as IRL friends, but, I feel like they could become it someday. Beyond that, next week a new campaign is starting - and I'm the DM.
Thanks for reading this long story-rant. I've been holding it in for 3 years. I finally feel free.
EDIT: Weird spacing issues.

The only vivid scene I remember from this movie is that there was a group of protagonists that were hiding from the bad guy under sheets. Then the train farts and says "Oops, I tooted"
Some other plot points I remember:

• Main Character is a girl looking for her father. He turns out to be the bad guy.
• One character has the ability to lift himself up with tornados.
• May or may not have been McDonald's toy?
• Animated in the same style as Megamind.
• I watched it in 2005 to maybe 2012ish?

Please help. I beginning to think this was a fever dream. Thanks!

Sweeties from sweeties:
https://imgur.com/gallery/UYA3RPN
PART 1 There's a word limit? LOL!!!!
u/_pickupthepieces x 8 Thank you so much for sending me the artsy cool card from the Buffalo art shop with the hip NY vibes - it’s sooooo NY & so you, my cool NY pal! It’s that cool card that I should prominently display somewhere (on my chest?!?) when I have a need to look & be cool hahaha! I also love the colorful stickers you sent! Most of all, thank you for indulging me & my wacky whims & addressing the envelope to “SUGAR” OMG OMG OMG I was giddy with joy that you did that!!!! I can’t even tell you how big the smile on my face was when I opened the mail box to see a card addressed to “SUGAR” in the fanciest, prettiest pink calligraphy!!!! In huge font!!! I have no idea why you sending a card all the way from NY addressed to “Sugar” made me feel so warm & fuzzy & naughty & like I had a super cool secret (wait - maybe a secret desire to be a sexy, sassy stripper?!? I dunno) but it sure did, sweetcakes! I actually turned around to see if any strangers were looking at me and the dopey smile on my face. To top it all off, you affixed…WHAT?!?!?! A Strawberry Shortcake sticker?!?!? She was my best friend growing up!!!!! I was so happy!!!! Thank you! Thank you for making me smile like a fruitcake. I’m so gonna laminate this envelope!!! Thank you also for the super pretty floral/3 animal/3 belated holiday cards you sent (which I can’t describe in detail/photograph right now because I don’t have them with me). They brought me so much joy! And thank you also for the generous assortment of card goodies to pass on!! Hahaha I hope I don’t accidentally send one back to you!! The Hilary Clinton card - hilarious & awesome. I can’t wait to meet Hilary’s greatest fan on this sub to send her on! Wishing you a sweet spring in NY!
u/notinmywheelhouse Thank you for the pretty plaid 1965 Marimekko postcard! Plaid is so timeless. And to answer your question about the reference to royalty in my street address, I was honestly embarrassed that I never before thought about the origin of his name! You taught me a valuable lesson - I’m not inquisitive enough hahaha! That’s so very important. I’m really grateful you inspired me to pause & wonder about the little things in life. As I researched your question, the only thing I could conclude is that the Google search engine is both heaven & hell. Because there are a billion hits & your question will require further research hahaha! As a southerner, I was so envious that you wrote to me from a state with such gorgeous weather! It was so cute the way you bragged about the weather hahaha! But I’m happy for you, friend. Although it also saddens me that you will never feel the beauty & magic of living in a state that gets so hot, the mascara melts & runs off your face. And then you run errands all day long without looking into a mirror - and not one stranger bats a melting-mascara-free eyelash to tell you that you look like an uglier, scarier, more demented version of that creepy clown from Stephen King’s It. Wishing you the breeziest, most beautiful weather today & always!
u/AlfredTheButt-ler Thank you so much for the fun Bandera Natural History Museum postcard featuring the neat-o dinosaur fossils exhibit! It so appeals to the nerd in me! I was super excited to learn 2 new factoids: 1) that the triceratops on the card “was an actual prop in the movie Night at the Museum” (I’m nuts for film facts!!!!) 2) that Bandera, Texas is known as “The Cowboy Capital of the World”. Just the word “Bandera” emits cool cowboy vibes!! Thank you so much for thinking of me. Hope you have an adventurous summer! BTW I sent you a card but I have no idea why it was returned to me as undeliverable. As soon as I’m able to catch up with thank yous, I’ll message you to confirm your address. Thanks again!! =)
u/Pumpkin-Spice-Witch How cuuuute are you if this Easter bunny card is this crazy cute?!? Thank you! The smiling flowers & easter eggs brightened my day so much! Loved your pun with the wish that my “day is eggs-xtra special and sweet”, the creative way in which you affixed the glittery butterfly embellishment (what a neat card-crafting tip to jazz up a card!!!), & the sweet stickers! Happy summer to you!!!
u/RoxanneBarton Thank you for the London Tower Bridge postcard that had me jonesing for tea & scones! I dig your affinity for the city’s “art, history, food scene, & overall cultural vibe”!! You so nicely articulated my own views of London!!! My maternal uncle lives there so when I was a kid, I took my first international trip there so it holds a special place in my heart. It was then that I fell in love with Tesco mild cheddar cheese, all things tea/royalty, & the cartoon “Postman Pat” - OMG now that I’m obsessed with snail mail through RAoC, I’m so excited at the thought of checking out the show as an adult!!! I hope you had a wonderful time & that you have lots of new adventures coming your way!
u/MaeveTheBrave x 4 Thank you for the most darling, delicious, delicate ice cream cone cut-out birthday card!!!! It’s soooooo very precious!!! You were so very generous with your envelope of fun - you made my birthday so festive & fabulous! Love it all - the coloring card, cute little memo sheets/stickers, scrapbooking ephemera, & all your warm wishes! You sent me an absolute surprise party in the mail & it lifted my spirits so much! Thank you for making my day so special. Thank you for the surprise “Cheerup Sleepy Jean” postcard. Loved hearing about your volunteer work with the Vermont City Marathon - I love that you perform community service! I’m also excited that you’re aspiring to run in the marathon - I dream of being at your level someday! Wow! Wishing you lots of endorphins as you run! Thank you for the Blue Neptune postcard & inspiring me with your work in astrophotography - this is so cool & so wow! I had never even heard of “astrophotography” before - you are reminding me to admire the skies & all the glory beyond what I can see. Wishing you lots of luck & joy as you work with post-processing software & continue to capture celestial charm!
u/postaltherapy x 3 Thank you for being THIS amazingly adorable. How many times a day are you told that you are sooooo adorable?!? I just wanna pinch your cheeks, you heartbreakingly adorable cutie!!!! With one glimpse of your cuuuute handwriting on the daisy card, without even having read a word, I instantly caught a glimpse of your heart. THANK YOU! And then when I read your “note of thanks”, I was in awe of how you thanked me - so very sincerely- for being a part of RAoC & for sending happy mail to others even though I haven’t even sent you anything yet hahaha! That is just adorable. YOU are adorable. I so appreciated your kind flair congrats, the extra special mini congrats cards, & the love with which you sent it all. Obsessed with the bright, beautiful pineapple washi tape you used to decorate the envelope!!!! Wishing you so much postal paradise, my sweet friend!
u/terrabranfordstrife Thank you for the super sweet handmade Easter card featuring the sleepy bunny and…the super creative easter egg charm embellishment that you tied to the card!!!! So so cool & creative - I love learning ways to elevate the card game so thank you for teaching me! I’ve purchased charms in the past (on sale at craft stores) not knowing what I would do with them but you gave me such a fun tip! The other sleepy bunny on the back is just adorable with his sweet smile. Loved your bright yellow washi tape & the pretty pink ink you used to send me your kind wishes! Hope you have a wonderful summer!
u/TheGeekAndTheBeast THANK you so much for all the hearty hugs, positivity, & love you sent with your comforting card & warm sentiments. You really helped ease emotional issues with your kindness, compassion, & assurance that “it is okay to feel lost & overwhelmed”. That is such a zen thought, my friend. I’m inspired by your willingness to just embrace life as it is, no matter the state of being. Thank you also for the cute space bookmark, mini memo coloring sheet (I loooove to color!!!) & fun book-themed stickers that so appeal to the book-nerd in me! Wishing you all the serenity & love you sent my way!
u/DianaPenPal x 2 Thank you so much for the super elegant birthday card!!!! I LOVE the 3-D chocolate cake slice embellishment with the tiny fork sticking out of it…soooo incredibly indulgent!!!! The mini birthday party hat/b-day sign embellishments inside are sooo cute too. And your beautiful creative writing using the word “birthday” to inspire me was such a treat:
Be the best you can be Imagine what you can do Remember who you are There’s nobody like you Honor your past Dwell on your heart All you need is love Your birthday is a great place to start
So much hope & love in your words - they mean so much to me, thank you!!!! The mini mail-themed envelope of stickers & memos is adorable too, thank you! Thank you so much for the surprise flair congrats card with the bright sticker goodies (love the pink bus sticker - pink anything makes me smile)! It was so kind of you to think of me - the pleasure of meeting you has been mine! Thank you for your constant generosity to us all - you amaze me with your sweet, unending offers! Wishing you a sweet & sunny summer!

Hey there! I’m going to journey through a classic and share my thoughts — I’d love to know your memories and impressions of this book!
Chapter 1: We begin with Claudia watching a fly during English class. Now, I was never a day-dreamer in school (I’m hyper focused and usually love school) so I loved this little glimpse into Claudia’s brain.
Farrow. Brilliant. I also love the Mixed Up Files and the Westing Game. Wish I read those in school!!
We’re also introduced to Ashley Wyeth in this chapter. Fun fact, I knew who the artist Andrew Wyeth was because my parents had a copy of Christina’s World in our dining room, and I was obsessed with it. So much so that I asked if I could have it when I moved out. I still have it, hanging in my kitchen.
Obsessed with Ashley’s manner of dress. I don’t know why, but something about the description reminds me of Olivia Davidson in SVH. Not the exact same, but ‘eccentric’. I went to a strict private school, and we were barely allowed to wear earrings, so a 13 yo with three piercings in both ears would’ve been extremely dibble to me.
Chapter 2:
Obligatory BSC description of club and members. Claudia mentions to Mimi that she feels like she’s just met someone significant on her life. Claudia gets a job with the Rodowsky’s. She concludes the meeting by reflecting on she doesn’t know what she would do without the club or her friends ……
Chapter 3: Ashley is in Claudia’s art class, which Claudia knows is probably not as impressive as the Keyes school in Chicago where Ashley is from (pretty sure this is a fictional school?) Ashley is very interested in Claudia and her work, but barely talks to or even looks at anyone else. Might there be a more advanced art school in Stamford for Ashley? Mrs Baehr announces the new gallery and art contest in four weeks. (PS I would not know how to pronounce Mrs Baehr’s name if not for Claudia’s spelling of ‘Bear’. Thanks, Claud.
Chapter 4: Claudia sitting for Rodowsky’s, and Jackie manages to spill Rice Krispies everywhere, then lock himself in the bathroom while getting his hand stuck in the bathtub drain. I really like the Rodowsky’s but sheesh. No wonder Claudia wanted to go play outside lol. Of course Ashley, the Rodowsky’s next door neighbor, shows up and implies babysitting is a colossal waste of time. Claudia counters by saying she will enter the sculpture contest.
Chapter 5: Ashley and Claudia sit together at lunch to discuss their sculptures, and the BSC is, well, NOT HAPPY. I mean, I get lunchroom politics, but it’s still painful to see the BSC slowly unravel into some exclusive group. I suppose it is important to note (as Claudia does) that in 7th grade, the club was a bit more separated. But starting in 8th grade, they become more of a squad.
The chapter concludes with Claudia getting to the club meeting late because she was looking at art with Ashley. And thus is the beginning of Claudia losing her nerve and failing to stand up for herself in order to impress Ashley. I’ve so been there lol.
Chapter 6: Side chapter about the Jeff Schafer troubles. Shout out to Mrs Bessar being like, cool, I’ll talk about your emotional problems with your 13 yo sister. Myriah and Gabbie’s beauty school sounds absolutely adorable. Love Mrs Perkins for that.
Chapter 7: Ashley decides to sculpt an inanimate object and gets inspired by a fire hydrant. Claudia asks Dawn to step in as VP (which ….. means nothing) because Ashley is her friend, too …. is she not? The tension brews….
Chapter 8: The tension spills over. Claudia misses another meeting and Kristy writes about “some people” being TRAITORS and getting all snarky about bell bottoms. I mean, it’s no sweater and turtleneck. The girls discuss their annoyance with Ashley, with Stacey stating she thinks Claudia doesn’t like her anymore. (I think it’s hugely important to remember that Stacey moves back to NYC in Book 13. No one knows this yet, but it makes me sad that Claud and Stace lose this time together.) I always think we don’t talk enough about friend breakups. (I know they reconcile, I’m just saying.)
Chapter 9: The club confronts Claudia to see if she’ll make the next meeting, and Ashley remarks that she’s Claudia’s mentor. Uh, ok. Did Claudia ask for a mentor? Who appointed you? And who are you that you can fulfill that role? Sorry, Ashley’s sense of arrogance there really annoys me. I take it back. “With gentle curves and tender feelings” validates her expertise.
Chapter 10: Stacey lays it all out in the notebook. Man, how I wish they’d just hash it out and have a heart to heart. Instead, the club responds by short-sheeting Claudia’s, hiding her junk food, and leaving snarky notes for her to find. I 100% find this very immature and 100% very relatable.
Chapter 11: Back at the Rodowsky’s. (Very little babysitting in this book overall). Ashley again comes over and calls Claudia’s interest and passion for babysitting useless. Cool bro. Claudia schools Ashley on how having hobbies and interests and a life outside of art actually helps the artist. GO CLAUDIA GO. Ashley then makes it about her because Claudia won’t abandon everything and everyone in her life FOR HER MENTOR. Jackie makes it all better by inspiring Claudia for her sculpture.
Chapter 12: Slow steps back to normal with Claudia and Mary Anne talking at the Rodowsky’s. Claudia starts separating herself from Ashely’s grip. How did Jackie break the doorbell?! lol
Chapter 13: Claudia starts putting the pieces back together by making lists to help catch up with school, work on friendships, and decide to pull out of the art show.
Chapter 14: Claudia finally returns to a BSC meeting and apologizes with, well, a cheesy poem lol. But they talk it out. BSC back on track!
Chapter 15: Surprise, surprise, Mrs Baehr submits Claudia’s unfinished sculpture into the art show as a work in progress. Of course it’s great. Of course Ashley’s fire hydrant gets first. So the book ends with some sort of resolution/reconciliation with Ashley and Claudia and the club that …… is never mentioned again.
I really like this book because it seems very realistic when a ‘new girl’ shifts the friend dynamics. But I gotta admit, it’s tough to read how poorly they all handle it! But again, pretty age appropriate and understandable.
On another note, my BSC in the future dream is that Ashley goes to an alternative arts high school in Stamford. After a year of floundering at SHS, Claudia decides to transfer and join Ashley where they cultivate a Rory Gilmore/Paris Gellar type friendship.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully it stirred some memories! What do you remember most from this book?

Okay, so I downloaded ~590 pdf files that contain "book reports" from BookLooks. The site rates books for "explicit content" but you have to read the title page of each report to see a "summary of concerns" and what they consider the reading level of each title. I've managed to scrape the basic information from the first page of every file and compile that into one big list. I want to parse each item into it's own column of a dataframe but there's a few problems. I'll paste the first two entries below:

["10,000 DRESSES\nBook Summary:\nA young boy dreams of wearing dresses\nand eventually does despite his family's\nprotestations.\nSummary of Concerns:\nThis book contains alternate gender\nideologies.\nEasy Reader\nBy Marcus Ewert\nISBN: 978-1-58322-850-0", '101 WAYS TO DANCE\nSummary of Concerns:\nThis book contains inexplicit references to\nsexual nudity and sexual activities.\nYoung Adult\nBy Kathy Stinson\nISBN: 978-1-897187-10-4\n978-1-897187-10-4\n1-897187-10-6\n978-0-329-50477-9\n978-0-329-62758-4\n0-329-50477-0\n0-329-62758-9', 

Every item starts with the book's title, which is always capitalized. Every item also has a "Summary of Concerns" but only about 300 have a "Book Summary:" category. The "Easy Reader" and "Young Adult" in these examples are what I'm calling the "reading level" but they aren't explicitly identified as such in the text anywhere. I don't really need the author's name or the ISBNs. I've already scraped each title and author from tables on the website (which don't include these summaries, just the rating number).
Here's what I've been doing to get a kind of workable table. I've made a pandas dataframe with pd.Dataframe(d) and splitting the text of the summary column by "." usually gives me the reading level on it's own.

book_looks_files=glob.glob("BookLooks_reports\*.pdf") book_looks_files = [i.upper() for i in book_looks_files] book_looks_files = [x for x in book_looks_files if "SLICK SHEET" not in x] book_looks_files = [x for x in book_looks_files if "SLICKSHEET" not in x] #downloaded file contains corrupted file for one book, the next line skips that #file book_looks_files = [x for x in book_looks_files if "PART TIME INDIAN" not in x] title = [] summary = [] concerns =[] for i in range(len(book_looks_files)): pdf_file = book_looks_files[i] with pdfplumber.open(pdf_file) as pdf: first_page = pdf.pages[0] pdf_text = first_page.extract_text().upper() title1 = pdf_text.split("\n")[0] title.append(title1) summary1 = pdf_text.split(":")[1].replace("\n",' ').replace("SUMMARY OF CONCERNS:",'').strip() summary.append(summary1) concerns1 = pdf_text.split("SUMMARY OF CONCERNS:")[1].split("\nBY")[0].replace("\n",' ').strip() concerns.append(concerns1) d = {'title':title, 'summary':summary, 'concerns':concerns,} 

This isn't a great way to do this, which is when I tried to putting all of the page content into a list and hoping I could parse the list into something more manageable.
ETA: had to redo the second code block because it didn't post right the first time. Hopefully I fixed it.

Im planing in buying a Silhouette to create Custom Trading Cards. ATM i use a Template i designed in GIMP, Print the Cards and cut them by hand. Im planing to cut smaller pieces in Vinyl and create different layers for my Cards. I never used a plotter and wanted to ask you if its as easy as i think it will be. My Dream scenario would be the following:

• Import DINA4 sheet of the cards (created in GIMP) to whatever Software Silhouette uses
• Put the printed sheet (with maybe a black frame to adjust?) into the machine
• machine cuts cards
• import sheet with parts i want to cut out of vinyl (created in GIMP)
• Put the printed sheet (with maybe a black frame to adjust?) into the machine
• machine cuts parts
• glue parts together

Is it as easy as that? Or are there any obstacles im not considering right now. What problems could appear? Id like to know before i buy a machine. And will the s.portrait do the job here?

Hey there!
​
FT:
- Take a look at my ⭐shinies sheet!⭐
- And my shiny eggs sheet!
- Event Codes ^{Lechonk Codes, 25th Anniversary Pikachu Codes, Ultra Ball Backpack Codes}
​
LF:
- Apriballs ^{rates listed in sheets, open to negotiation}
- Shinies ^{most interested in Marked Shinies, Shiny Eggs, & Scarlet Exclusive Shinies}
- Legendary Pokémon ^{in Apriballs}
​
Most Wanted:
Here's a list of very niche mons I'm looking for:
​

Pokémon Shiny, if possible	Mark
Maushold, Tatsugiri (Curly Form), Tatsugiri (Stretchy Form), Palafin, Gholdengo, any Hisuian Form mon	Jumbo, Mini, or Alpha Mark
Pikachu, Charizard, Cinderace, Greninja, Typhlosion preferably in Apriballs	Mightiest Mark
Larvitar, Pupitar, Tyranitar, Oranguru, Great Tusk, Scream Tail, Flutter Mane, Sandy Shocks, Roaring Moon	Personality or Rare Mark

In addition to what I have on my Shinies Sheet, I'd be willing to hunt or breed specific mons for you in Violet for the mons above - just lmk!
​
Most Valuable:
The following are my most valuable mons:
​

Pokémon All shiny	Ball	Notes	Rule 3:
Dondozo	Heavy	Mini Mark	Self-Caught, OT: Coco, ID: 639806
Arcanine	Level	Upbeat Mark	Traded on pokemontrades, OT: Carine, ID: 765296
Ursaring	Level	Zero Energy	Traded on pokemontrades, OT: Momo, ID: 78248
Misdreavus	Friend	Thorny Mark	Self-Caught, OT: Coco, ID: 639806
Iron Valiant	Dream	Scowling Mark	Self-Caught, OT: Coco, ID: 639806
Iron Thorns	Friend	Smiley Mark	Self-Caught, OT: Coco, ID: 639806
Iron Hands	Level	Crafty Mark	Self-Caught, OT: Coco, ID: 639806
Ursaluna	Strange	0 SPD	Traded on pokemontrades, OT: Reicchi, ID: 3398
Kingambit	Luxury	Calmness Mark, Battle Ready	Self-Caught, OT: Coco, ID: 639806

Mostly looking for Scarlet Exclusive Personality or Rare Mark Pokémon for these. But, lmk your best offer - thanks!
​
Happy Trading! :D

https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-founder-of-chewy-com-on-finding-the-financing-to-achieve-scale

​

The Founder of Chewy.com on Finding the Financing to Achieve Scale

by

• Ryan Cohen

Most people assume that the high point of my professional career came on April 18, 2017, when the owners of PetSmart paid $3.35 billion for Chewy.com, the pet retailer I had cofounded six years earlier. No doubt, that day was incredible. It represented the culmination of a dream and a tremendous amount of work. But believe it or not, another handshake—another deal—mattered even more to me.
That one happened on September 26, 2013. I had launched Chewy two years earlier with Michael Day, using our own cash and small loans, but my vision was to build a large business, and I knew that significant capital would be required to finance the growth. We approached dozens of VC firms—I even flew out to Silicon Valley from our South Florida headquarters and went door-to-door on Sand Hill Road explaining how Chewy would succeed by delighting customers and running an ultra-efficient operation. But everyone turned us down.
Larry Cheng at Volition Capital was one of the people we pitched our company to. We first met him in 2012; he was en route to Disney World with his family and agreed to make a quick stop at our office. I remember that he asked me, “Who’s going to take this company to $100 million in sales?” I was 26 and probably looked even younger, but I confidently answered, “I am.” He didn’t invest.
He followed up with us about six months later, though. We’d beaten the sales projections that we’d previously given him, and he was impressed. A few days later he signed off on a $15 million investment in Chewy. The satisfaction of that victory was even greater than the pride I felt following the eventual multibillion-dollar sale. After two years of building Chewy—and more than 100 conversations with VCs that went nowhere—I’d finally found someone who believed in me and our business model. Larry had validated our idea.
From that point on, the mission was larger. I was even more committed to making Chewy an industry leader, because it was no longer just our own money on the line. Larry had gone out on a limb for us. I felt that responsibility.
I approached every subsequent round of financing, including PetSmart’s acquisition, in a similar way—by underpromising and overdelivering on sales. Our mission was straightforward: to build a best-in-class, customer-obsessed pet retailer. We also wanted to leave everyone who’d backed us a winner.

An Early Pivot

I’ve been working since I was 13, when I started building websites for family members and local businesses. From there I moved into affiliate marketing. I met Michael in an online chat room discussing website design and computer programming. We hit it off immediately and started talking about collaborating on a business.
I’d always wanted to build an e-commerce company, so we settled on what we thought was a terrific idea in an industry ripe for disruption: online jewelry sales. We built the website, set up the delivery systems, bought the inventory, and even put a safe in the office to store it.
But about a week before our scheduled launch, I had a revelation. I was in a local pet store with my toy poodle, Tylee, asking the owner about the most healthful food I could buy for her. That’s when it hit me: I was getting into the wrong business. I didn’t care much about jewelry, but like many dog and cat parents I knew, I was passionate about what I bought for Tylee. The pet industry was big and growing, moving from mass market to premium. It was clear that the opportunity was huge.
So although we were only a week away from launching the jewelry business, we pivoted. We sold all the rings, necklaces, and bracelets—and the safe—and started learning everything we could about the pet industry. We built a new website. We found a local distributor and partnered with a third-party logistics company nearby. In June of 2011 we launched. In just three months we went from my epiphany at the pet store to running a pet-supplies business.
We intended to build a best-in-class, customer-obsessed pet retailer.
People sometimes ask if I worried about following in the footsteps of Pets.com, in 2000 one of the highest profile failures of the dot-com bubble. I didn’t. For one thing, I was 15 when that company declared bankruptcy, so I wasn’t very familiar with the story. Second, Pets.com existed at a time when most people had dial-up internet and weren’t comfortable making purchases online. By the time we started, e-commerce was second nature for most consumers.
I also got questions about Amazon, and, of course, it was a real competitor. It had an incredible infrastructure, established relationships with customers and suppliers, and endless capital. But I knew that other companies, including Zappos (later acquired by Amazon) and Wayfair, had found success in specific product categories. Their secret was offering a differentiated customer experience. I thought we could do something similar in the pet space.
With limited resources, we served as our own C-suite. I was CEO, Michael was CTO, and my longtime friend Alan Attal was COO. We knew that superior customer service had to be one of our core competencies if we wanted to deliver the same experience I’d had at the neighborhood pet store, so our first priority was building a team to work the phones, live chat, and emails in our call center so that we could stop doing all that ourselves.
From the outset we reinvested all our cash from operations in the business, but eventually we needed the larger pools of money that VC firms offered. After months of searching, we finally found Larry and Volition.

Scaling Up

We closed the series A financing round on October 24, 2013, and I’ll never forget the moment the money hit our bank account. Although we had signed the term sheet, part of me was still skeptical that it was all going to work out. But when I saw the transfer confirmation, it became real.
With that money we could invest in developing the systems, technology, and teams needed to scale up. We could also bring stocking and shipping in-house. We already recognized that if we wanted to create a multibillion-dollar business, fulfillment had to become another core competency.
Consultants had told us that it would take a year and a half to build a warehouse from scratch. But with 300% growth year over year, we didn’t have that much time. The logistics company handling fulfillment couldn’t keep up, so the Chewy customer experience had begun to deteriorate. We needed more control, and fast. We knew we had to make the transition within a few months.
We started scouting potential sites in February of 2014, focusing on the northeastern United States because so much of the country’s population lives there. The location we chose—Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania—would allow us to provide overnight delivery to customers in the densely populated tristate area of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. By that summer we’d opened a 400,000-square-foot facility full of bags and cans of dog and cat food, carriers and cages, leashes, litter boxes, toys, and treats.
Although we managed to get up and running in less than six months, it certainly wasn’t easy. Everything that could go wrong did. We couldn’t hire people to work in the warehouse fast enough. When we were finally staffed, the scanner guns would stop working, or the Wi-Fi or warehouse management system would go out. We were tackling issue after issue 24/7 until we worked out all the kinks.
We also focused heavily on marketing. From day one, we invested almost exclusively in direct response ads, so every dollar spent could be tracked—no Pets.com-style Super Bowl commercials for us. We expanded by investing in the team and processes to effectively acquire the right customers at the right cost. Our governor of growth was free cash flow. Our sales more than doubled from $205 million in 2014 to $423 million in 2015.
Our new hires played a big role in scaling up the company. I realized early on that I’d need to use my time efficiently and focus on hiring. At first recruiting was a challenge. Alan and I spent countless hours reaching out to candidates on LinkedIn, explaining how quickly the company was growing and describing what we intended to build, but 98% of them didn’t bother to respond.
Surprisingly, that turned out to be a useful filter. The 2% who did write back were true believers, team players, and business builders who were excited for the opportunity. They all had tremendous heart, fire in their bellies, and a will to win. We hired for passion. Many people quit stable jobs and relocated with their families from across the country to join us. It was a tremendous sacrifice that we never took lightly.
Ultimately we raised six rounds of financing totaling more than $350 million from T. Rowe Price, BlackRock, Greenspring, Lone Pine, Verlinvest, and the investment bank Allen & Company.

The Next Level

Our revenue was $901 million in 2016 and growing 100% year over year. That got us thinking about an IPO for our next round of financing. We had about 7,000 employees and six warehouses, with plans to add another two in the next 12 months. From an operational and strategic perspective, the company was strong.
As we prepped for the IPO, Petco, one of the biggest U.S. pet retailers, approached us about a merger. It couldn’t meet our terms, so we shook hands and parted ways.
In early 2017 PetSmart, Petco’s primary brick-and-mortar rival, also reached out. I received an email from Raymond Svider, a partner and the chairman of BC Partners, the private equity group that had completed its acquisition of PetSmart in March of 2015. He said he was interested in buying Chewy and wanted to talk. We had met previously but didn’t know each other well.
PetSmart was one of our top competitors, so we proceeded carefully. I explained that we were preparing for an IPO, so we expected a certain price in an all-cash, public-style deal. In view of the competitive dynamics, we weren’t going to give away our proprietary information and start a lengthy due-diligence process. I told Svider that if he wanted to make the acquisition, he would need to do it quickly. To his credit, he did. In April of 2017 we signed an agreement to sell the company for $3.35 billion. It was the largest e-commerce acquisition in history.
Our investors were happy too. The early-stage ones made huge gains, and the later-stage ones earned significant money. Investing in Chewy had made a lot of careers, and I’m proud of that. Those investors put their trust in me and my vision, and I repaid them with returns. The same would soon be true for BC Partners and PetSmart.
Chewy’s revenues continued to rise post-acquisition, hitting $3.5 billion in 2018, while its losses narrowed to $267 million. In June of 2019 PetSmart spun Chewy off into a publicly traded company at a valuation near $9 billion, close to three times the sale price only two years before.
I left the company in March of 2018. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I felt I had done all I had set out to do. The company was sound, the foundation strong, and the vision set. But I was no longer in full control. And I didn’t want a boss. I’m a business builder, not a manager. My work was complete.
When I think back to why raising the money to help grow the business was one of the best moments of my life, I realize it’s because the journey was far more exciting than getting to the finish line. I relished the challenges of disrupting an entire industry and trying to delight customers to a degree that had never been achieved before. The excitement I felt from putting together a world-class team of employees and investors, succeeding against all odds, and building a multibillion-dollar retail leader from nothing was unequivocally the greatest of my career.

Hi there! I'm looking for some of the new HOME pokemons to breed, in return I can offer anything from the following:

• My On-Hands (me 2:1 you)
• My Breedables (me 1:1 you)
• Love/Beast Balls or Ability Patch (me 1:3 you)

This is my current aprimon sheet , and the mons I'm searching for are these:

• Heavy HA Alolan-Grimer
• Heavy HA Rufflet
• Dream HA Cyndaquil
• Friend HA Basculin-White-Striped

Thanks in advance! and have a great day <3

Teotihuacan was built on a geodetic grid system (a power center) in perfect sacred geometrical alignment with the cosmos to harness the energy of earth and sky. To understand it, we must go back to the original truth of the purpose. advanced design of Teotihuacan suggests that ancient builders had knowledge, not only of architecture, but of complex mathematical and astronomical sciences. The term 'Teohuacan' was found inscribed halfway across the globe on monuments in China, the term means 'place of the sun'(*our translation is 'Place to tie up the sun)Mercury, Hermes was the great Messenger, which also speaks for the planets quick trips around the sun. An aerial view shocked many researchers, but following the traditions we know what every pyramid was used for. Circuit Board-Teohuatican with two large processor chips— the Sun Pyramid and the Moon Pyramid. . One of the most interesting things about Teotihuacan is the finding by archaeologists of the extensive use of mica embedded in numerous structures. This mineral is found 3,000 miles away in Brazil and it is found in all buildings, housing complexes, temples and along the roads so basically this mineral is all over Teotihuacan.
The pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan contained considerable amounts of mica in layers up to 30 cm. Human use of mica dates back to prehistoric times. Mica was known to ancient Indian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman andChinese civilizations, as well as the Aztec civilization of the New World. The earliest use of mica has been found in cave paintings created during the Upper Paleolithic period (40,000 BC to 10,000 BC). The ancient civilizations & their inexplicable similarities are only shocking when one has disregarded our ancestors traditions as 'mythical ', which is a mistake made by academics only recently.
Mica is stable when exposed to electricity, light, moisture, and extreme temperatures. It has superior electrical properties as an insulator and as a dielectric, and can support an electrostatic field while dissipating minimal energy in the form of heat; it can be split very thin (0.025 to 0.125 millimeters or thinner) while maintaining its electrical properties, has a high dielectric breakdown, is thermally stable to 500 °C, and is resistant to corona discharge. Muscovite, the principal mica used by the electrical industry, is used in capacitors that are ideal for high frequency and radio frequency. Phlogopite mica remains stable at higher temperatures (to 900 °C) and is used in applications in which a combination of high-heat stability and electrical properties is required. Muscovite and phlogopite are used in sheet and ground forms.
The Maya Codex Vaticanus records faithfully the very ancient oral traditions of Central America. In one curious passage it states that “in the First Age, giants existed in that country(Mexico). "These 7 who escaped from a deluge , arrive in Cholula and there began to build a tower… in order that should a deluge come again he might escape to it.” Nahuatl language it’s named Tlachihualtepetl (‘artificial mountain’). Originally it was named Acholollan (‘water that falls in the place of flight’).
-Olmec(Xi)-had two different religious associations (gya-fa):the jaguar-man or humano-feline cult and the humano-bird cult. The humano-feline cult was called the nama-tigi by the Olmecs, while the humano-feline cult was called the kuno-tigi..Xoc Bas Birdman
The Teotihuacan(Tlalocan )mural depicts a range of mountains covered in rolling clouds and mists, below a brilliant red sky dominated by the huge figure of Tláloc, the Maya/Aztec god of celestial waters. Falling from Tláloc's open hands are flaming droplets of celestial water, likely representing the high-resonance isotope of protium, that overtly reference the ignition of celestial water vapor to form HHO plasma. The differentiation of celestial waters from terrestrial waters through the infrasonic evaporation of water vapor corresponds to special modern water purification processes involving the separation of resonant lightwater (protium) from dissonant heavy waters deuterium & tritium
The plumed headdress of Tláloc is comprised of radiating feathers of green and red hues, representing the colors of auroral plasma. Three arching red plumes stand out from the other green plumes of the headdress, extending from either side of the central figure and from the foreheads (pineal glands) of the two smaller figures in profile, representing the three frequencies of sound that generate nonlinear standing waves. Rising above the giant central figure of Tláloc is a majestic twisting Tree of Life image, composed of intertwining plumes of yellow/green and pink/red aerial HHO plasma that appear identical to modern photographs of the plasma discharges of red sprites.
Tláloc, God of Celestial Water, god of the vapor that rises, from the earth warmed by the sun after the rains, god of the mist that ascends from the valleys at dawn, god of the water that returns to its source in the clouds that swim over the highest peaks, god of the humid incense from which rise the copal prayers and the prayers of sacrifice
Tláloc is the return of vapor that strains to rise, is the return of time that strains to remember. Tláloc, God of the Fight Against the Current, with whose aid the hero battles against the torrent toward his own origin and beginning, towards the wings of his soul, the wings that Tláloc hides in the hero's past
The cycle of years is past - the waiting ended. Come - reunite, pilgrims, for the sky is in flames! From Xochicalco to Teotíhuacan the red spreads one step, another step, and another, only twelve short steps from the cave of the womb to the final conflagration
The red skies depicted in the Teotihuacan mural are also directly referenced in the Pyramid of Fire Codex, when it states that "the sky will be in flames" that will spread from one pyamid to another, as the worldwide netwrok of pyramids and sacred sites become activated to bath the area in the brilliant infrared and ultraviolet-A light of aerial HHO plasma plumes.ancient, unknown science designed to create energy directed up is excavating the tunnel.
-The geoposition of Teotihuacan pyramid complex (19.68°N 98.83°W), reveals a nonlinear (or Fibonacci-based) resonant alignment with respect to the Great Pyramid of Giza, being 7,684 miles away or 30.9% of the Earth's mean circumference (of 24,892 miles)..which is also observed in the Paracas petroglyphs.
The Sanskrit descendant cultures of Asia express the same essential interpretation given by the Maya culture of Central America; identifying the planet Mercury as ‘the fast runner’ that takes ‘quick flight’ around the sun, having a short orbital period of approximately 88 days. Among Nahuatl cultures, the art of running was crucial to the functioning of society, enabling the rapid conveyance of messages over long distance.
Mercury is the link (messenger) between the gods (higher principles) and humankind. In the ancient art of alchemy, such as in Hermeticism, Mercury, sulfur, and salt were the Earth's three principle substances that represent the trinity in creation. As sulphur is the symbol for the active principle, mercury is the symbol of the passive principle.The symbol of Mercury is the cosmic womb being incubated by the cross of the four elements of creation - earth, air, fire and water. Mercury is the messenger in Astrology as it is in mythology. It is the planet of day-to-day expression and communication. Mercury's action is to take things apart and put them back together again. It is an opportunistic planet, decidedly unemotional and curious. Mercury not only rules communication, it represents coordination. Thought processes, ideas, and sensory information from both unconscious and unconscious sources all need to be coordinated and understood.
Ive said before that the mercury was used to accomplish communication wth the Gods, The fluid metal element mercury was extolled as generating the luminosity of the blood of gods, for its threefold biophotonic extension of human longevity, whereby adepts of the alchemical arts were able to attain long lifespans. Mercury was closely associated with its extreme volatility, which must be carefully controlled to achieve positive results. Mercury was considered an ethereal element for its low boiling point of 357°C. When heated above this temperature, quicksilver will rapidly vaporize as toxic fumes inspiring an association with quick flight: ‘mercury has wings’.
A number of the Mesoamerican pyramids there are key components designed into their construction that act as magnifiers. These components appear to be important in the creation, magnification, and distribution of telluric fields.Pyramid & Scalar WavesEarly Irrigation of Teotihuacan
Provenance od Limestone used in Teotihuacan
Identification of Pyrite & Hematite
• Water, either moving naturally including rivers or cenotes (found at El Castillo at Chichen Itza) or by artificial canals or tunnels, similar to the Temple of Inscription found at Palenque.)
• Geo-magnetic fields. Naturally formed telluric fields that have high and low period throughout day and night.
• Pyramid design. The specific pyramid shape appears to greatly enhance the telluric fields that pulse up and into the center of the chamber.
• Pyramid interior fill. At a number of pyramids, rocks that are good electromagnetic conductors fill the interior of the pyramids and are used to enhance the pulsing field. Rocks that have veins with quartz, granite, and other electrical conducting properties appear to be favored. Characterization of lime carbonates in plasters from Teotihuacan, Mexico: preliminary results of cathodoluminescence and carbon isotope analyses
Dr Burke &Dr Brooker research determined that each location had been chosen because of its naturally occurring telluric energy field that pulsed up and into the structure or surrounding area. Also Burke and his research partner Kaj Halberg discovered electro-magnetic signatures that measured impressive charges on top of the pyramid. In a series of scans, the readings showed an average change of 908 volts over a short period of time, which was concentrated in the early morning hours. As ive stated in the past, this is the ideal time for sungazing. The pineal, contains magnetite & creates its own magnetic field. This was once a universal practice at Sacred sites, in 2009 until Nov 2012 The grand maya council held 52 full moon ritual of the new cycle where we visited sacred sites around the world and brought back these rituals. Burke mentions the readings and states, “These voltages might sound lethal and if it were a household current they could be. However, static electric charge in the air is a different type of electricity and even a thousand volts is not dangerous.” His discovery of pyramid field generation is fascinating, but what he actually uncovered was a means of generating and perhaps distributing electromagnetic energy within a pyramid complex. Which aligns with the term used for the ancient Egyptians, the Great PrNtr-house of Nature, or house of energy).
Stanford edu-Native American & Polynesian population The Genetic Evidence for 2 founding populations has constantly confirmed our traditions, the idea of independent invention is absolute nonsense. Theres an overwhelming amount of evidence, "believe" is a term unfamiliar to Dogon culture & ive yet to see the point in such a thing. If preconceived biases have clouded the minds of the majority, and they ignore evidence thats their fault. The age of the Fourth Sun, the Age of the Black Headed People (Aztec), or the Age of Heroes (Inca). This is the era in which Quetzalcoatl appeared in Mexico -- tall of stature, bright of countenance, bearded, and wearing a long tunic. His staff, shaped like a serpent, was painted black, white, and red [reminiscent of American Indians' mythology of three races of Man]. The staff was inlaid with precious stones and adorned with six stars.
-Between the 14th and 16th centuries during the Aztec era, Quetzalcoatl was worshipped as the patron of priests, the inventor of books and the calendar, as well as the protector of goldsmiths and other craftsmen..Shamanism, was invented in west Africa & brought to the Mesoamerican civilizations. The Aztec oral traditions say that Quetzalcoatl & his followers brought these beliefs ,and came from the East across the oceans. This is now corroborated by genetic, skeletal remains, artifacts, you name it. Quetzalcoatl was just a High Priest of Anu. The Gold tipped spears,or as Columbus calls it ' guanin 'to the Indians of Hispaniola. Samples of which sent back to Spain on a mail boat, and the proportion was found to be identical to what was being forged in African Guinea.
Moche Reed BoatThe Xi(Olmec) were a mix of a Polynesian/Oceanic elite aristocratic people accompanied by priests of the Orisha(Yoruba)/Mende(MalinkeBambara)responsible for introducing the religious practices and astronomical worship of the Mother Goddess complex (Venus, the Dogon Sirius observation and the Venus worship of the Olmecs, the use of the ax in the worship of Shango among he Yoruba of West Africa and the use of the ax in Olmec worship as well as the prominence of the thunder God later known as Tlalock among the Aztecs).It was R1b-V88(Yoruba) that were known as magicians to the Mayans & local Aymara over in Bolivia because of their knowledge of acoustics, which they have preserved from the Nile Valley (Anu colleges of Heliopolis).
Again, we see Toward the end of the Fourth Sun, wars between the gods were taking place. [The Battle of the Titans?] The gods' war brought havoc to the land; wild animals overran mankind, and Tollan was abandoned. The fourth Sun had begun 5,042 years before the time of the Codex Vaticano-Latino 3738 (1533). The time the Fourth Sun ended is not stated, but the Codex was written during the Fifth Sun. The Fourth Sun may have perished by means of the Jaguar. The Fifth Sun is referred to as the Age of Kings by the Incas.

Not for me but my husband, he doesn’t use Reddit so he asked me to ask for him. He just got told he got an assignment to go to on a short tour overseas for a year and they’re asking him to update his dream sheet so they can add his follow on base to his orders. He got stationed at Whiteman, MO straight out of tech school and we’ve both absolutely despised our lives living here. Sure Kansas City is an hour away but it’s an up and coming big city and lacks a lot of what we want, we’ve both grown to hate the Midwest. No hate towards you if you like it but he grew up in Orlando and I’m from Las Vegas so this base has been a complete 180 for us. We miss the big city and the diversity. We have no kids and don’t plan on them, we’re both in our early 20’s and want to live up our lives and party so we want to live in a big city with nightlife, travel opportunities, and a beach would be wonderful too but not necessary, any suggestions?! Thanks!
Info: his job goes to every Air Force base and we would prefer an overseas base but a stateside one would be great too! Yes I know I can Google it but I’m looking for peoples opinions, we already have a list made based on my googling I just want some more ideas!

Source: Growing Up in the Lord: A Study for Teenage Boys (Ch. 7, 1994)
If you haven’t done so already, you will soon decide to take a girl out on a date. Dating a girl is a good time to enjoy the companionship of someone else. Women have a different perspective on life.
When you take different girls out on a date, you have a chance to see who is available. You also have a chance to firm up in your own mind what you will be looking for in a wife. Most boys go through a phase where they cannot stand any girl, except mothers who are tolerated within limits. When these boys reach adolescence, they quickly realize that girls can be interesting.
Taking a girl out on a date gives you a chance to practice getting along with women. Girls do not enjoy being treated the same way you treat other boys. The time you spend dating gives you a chance to learn how to act around a girl.
You need to be choosy about whom you will be going out with. Some girls will understand that, because you are a Christian, there are certain things that you will not do. Many girls will enjoy the fact that they don’t have to be constantly on their guard while they are with you. However, there are girls who will use every opportunity they can find to try to get you to do things that are sinful. It is a challenge for them to see how far they can get you to go. For your own soul’s sake, you are better off not dating such a girl. David warns us, in Psalms 1:1, not to associate with sinners. By continually exposing yourself to sin, you are tempted to commit a sin. That is why Paul said evil companions will corrupt your good morals (I Corinthians 15:33).
Group dates are a good way to start out dating when you are young. If you pick your companions wisely, there will be fewer temptations in your way. A group gives you a chance to get acquainted with several people at once. You can also observe how the other guys treat their dates. Perhaps your first date won’t be so awkward when it is shared with others. Some good outings with a group may be to go bowling, play a few rounds of putt-putt golf, go canoeing, have a picnic and play softball or volleyball, or gather a group of young people together after church to eat ice cream.
Before you head out, spend some time thinking about what you will talk about during your date. In our society, boys tend to think and talk in terms of actions. Girls tend to think and talk about feelings. For example, if a boy and a girl were talking about an Olympic event, the boy would be interested in the score and the types of moves the athlete made. The girl would be interested in how the athlete was handling the stress and the athlete’s reaction to the scoring. Neither viewpoint is good or bad. They are just different. It is those differences that make conversation on your first date so difficult. Spend some time thinking about what you would like to know about this girl you are dating.
One day, all too soon, you will begin dating to find someone suitable to be your lifetime companion. If you want a companion, you must learn to be companionable. Talk about your interests and find out about hers. Do you enjoy similar things? If the two of you don’t have anything to talk about, what would marriage to such a person be like?
Make plans for the evening in advance and let your parents know where you expect to be. I know that many of you would rather keep your plans between you and your girlfriend, but you never know when an emergency may come up. Telling your parents also gives you a chance to see if your plans are respectable and appropriate. If you are too embarrassed to tell your folks, then perhaps you are planning something that a Christian ought not to do. Continue to carefully examine your motives.
Once you are out on your date, avoid changing your plans at the last minute. Don’t let your emotions lead you to making a little detour to a quiet place where you can be alone with your girlfriend. It is a great temptation to go too far when there is no one around to see what you are doing. Don’t go parking in the dark. Even if the first few times you don’t do anything shameful, it is continually tempting to go a little farther and to get a little closer. If you want time to talk, find a well-lighted place with other people around. It will encourage you to act respectfully. Finally, don’t spend time at your house or hers when no one else is around. Many boys and girls find their own home comfortable and safe, so they relax their guard and do things they would not do in public. Most teenage pregnancies come about because a boy and a girl had sex at home. Somehow, people convince themselves there is no harm done if no one will see them. Don’t let Satan fool you!
In a few years, one person that you have dated will stand out among the others. You will find yourself going out with her more often than anyone else. You may even decide to stop dating anyone else. Dating only one person is called “going steady.” Going steady with a girl for a while is a logical step before asking her the big question. It gives you a little more time to finally decide if this is really the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Just don’t rush into it too soon. You can’t make a good decision if you only dated one person your whole life. There are plenty of years ahead of you, so don’t limit yourself to one person too soon.
You know you are ready to go steady with a girl when you have dated other girls but you prefer this person’s company over everyone else. When you want to spend more time with this person and dating someone else will interfere with your time, then perhaps it is time to go steady.
However, if you feel pressure to date one person exclusively because everyone else is doing it, then you should reconsider. Some boys rush into going steady because they fear there won’t be anyone else. This is another poor reason to go steady with a girl. There are hundreds of girls in the world with whom you could happily live. Don’t get the idea that there is just one right person for you. Take your time. Marriage is a lifetime commitment, so don’t rush the preliminary stages. Another bad reason for going steady is to hold on to a “good catch.” Some people pride themselves on having the prettiest or smartest girl in school as their exclusive girlfriend. Remember our discussion about the pride of life. Date a girl because you like her and not because you like the admiration of the other boys.
As you get comfortable with that special girl, keep in mind that there is a real temptation to take liberties with her that you would not take with other girls. Now is not the time to break God’s law because you allow your emotions get the better of you. Far too many teenagers allow their emotions to flare and find themselves tempted to have sex during their date.
A common excuse given for having sex on a date is that you need to find out before hand if you are compatible or not. You could have sex with any girl. How familiar you are with having sex has nothing to do with compatibility. You should not be looking for a bed partner while you are dating. You should be looking for someone to share the rest of your life with. Once you and your girlfriend are married, you will have plenty of opportunity to learn how to have sex. There is no benefit gained by breaking God’s law and having sex before you are married.
What is Love?
I’ve often told you in this book that various feelings and reactions are not love. Having an erection doesn’t mean you are in love. Wanting to have sex with someone doesn’t mean you are in love. The actual act of sex is not love, although it is called “making love” in today’s slang. To understand what love really is, we need to turn over to I Corinthians 13:1-7.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I Corinthians 13:1-7

Paul is explaining what true love between Christians is like. The description also beautifully describes what the love between a husband and wife should be like.
When you love someone, you are willing to put up with their faults. You understand that people make mistakes and that changes take time, if they come at all. Even when she says something mean to you, you will only return kindness back. Love involves trusting the other person with all your heart. You don’t envy her when she gets a big promotion at work or is honored for the things she has done in the community. Instead, you rejoice with her. A loving husband doesn’t boast about how good he is and ignores his wife’s accomplishments. What you do is much less important to you than what she does. If you truly love someone, you won’t say things that will hurt her feelings. She is much more important to you than your own concerns. As a result, you will keep a tight reign on your anger and not lash out when things don’t go your way.
Loving couples don’t accuse each other of wickedness. Too many marriages are broken because the husband saw a man leave the house or found some note and immediately leaped to the conclusion that his wife is having an affair. However, sometimes it is obvious that sin is taking place. When this happens, a loving husband will stand firm with the Lord. He will do everything possible to bring his wife back to the way of righteousness.
Being in love means you are optimistic. You are always hoping that things will get better. That hope helps you to get over the many rough times that you and your wife will face together.
Most of all, love doesn’t fail. Planning to marry someone for a time to see if it will work out means you are not in love. You don’t fall in and out of true love. Love holds on through good times and through bad times.

The Difference Between Love and Infatuation

Many people confuse being infatuated with someone for being in love with someone. Each of us has a mental picture of the ideal companion. That mental picture is usually based on various physical attributes. She should be so tall, with a pretty nose, brown eyes, etc. Occasionally you meet someone who closely matches your mental ideal. You get excited and believe you have fallen in love at first sight.
This is not really love, but infatuation. You can tell the difference, because infatuation dies over time. I guarantee that while you are moonstruck with a girl you won’t believe that it will ever end, but it usually does. As you get to know the girl and find out about her likes and dislikes, you realize that she is not as perfect as you imagined her to be. The word “imagined” is the key word. You have no idea what a person is like when you first meet them. Getting to know a person takes time.
Over time an infatuation will either die off or be replaced by true love. When you are truly in love, you will be aware of a person’s flaws, but you have made a rational decision that you can live with them. A person who is infatuated with someone will either be totally unaware of the flaws in that person, pretend that those flaws are not there, pretend that those flaws don’t matter, or believe that they can change that person over time. The last attitude can be disastrous for a relationship. People do change at times, but it is not very often and it is rarely because someone caused them to change. People change themselves because they want to make the change. When you choose a woman to be your wife, you should look at who she is and not who you think you can make her into. If you do not like who she is today, you are taking a big risk thinking she will be different tomorrow. In other words, if she doesn’t change before marriage, then she certainly won’t change after marriage.
Talk freely with your intended companion. Some men are afraid to tell their girlfriend everything they are thinking for fear of driving them away. If your true thoughts would drive your girlfriend away, then the two of you were probably not cut out for each other. Both of you would be better off looking for someone else. Nothing could be worst than to find out you have made a lifetime commitment to someone who can’t stand you.
In summary, true love is based on reality. Infatuation is based on fantasy. Before committing yourself to someone, make sure you both have a firm grip on reality.

A Small Exercise

Take a sheet of paper and write down the things that you hope to find in the woman you will one day marry. Is it important that she be good looking? Does it matter to you if she is taller than you? Do you hope she is a good cook? Should she like children? How many children do you hope to raise? Give it serious consideration and don’t base your answers on someone you are dating at the moment. It would be better to work on this when there is no one in particular competing for your heart. Talk to your dad or an elder or the preacher about it, but make sure that it is your list showing what is important to you.
Try ranking your points. What is the most important? Which things would be nice, but really don’t matter that much?
It may seem a little early to start thinking about whom you plan to marry. After all, marriage is still several years off. However, if you know what you are looking for, then when you finally meet the girl of your dreams, you can be confident that you are making a sound decision that you will never regret.
Have a rough list done before you start chapter 8. Through the years, continue to revise your list. The things that are important to you at 13 may seem childish at 18, so continue to think about these things.

Expecting a surplus of weird bells? Looking to ditch them for cool stuff? Look no further!

I am looking for redeems for the upcoming WiFi-distributed event: Yasuharu Shimizu's Bronzong. I wish to collect a huge bunch of them so I can make Evthe420 cry when I release them en masse for my collection. 😇
What can I offer in return? Here's a list, with rates included for your convenience:

What's for trade	Amount of Bronzong redeems requested	Notes
10x SV Apriballs/rare balls	1x redeem(s)	Rare balls are defined as Dream/Beast Balls; feel free to ask for any combination possible.
Shiny Pokemon or shiny Paradox	1x redeem(s)
Uncommon-Marked shiny or shiny Roaring Moon	3x redeems
Marked shiny or marked Paradox	4x redeems
Marco Hemantha Kaludura Silva's Dracovish	3x redeems
Wonseok Jung's Grimmsnarl	3x redeems	Proof is lost, but all were self-redeemed by me and I can verify their authenticity.
Kohei Fujida's Sableye	3x redeems	Proof is lost, but all were self-redeemed by me and I can verify their authenticity.
Jirawiwat Thitasiri's Clefairy	3x redeems
Eric Rios's East Sea Gastrodon	3x redeems
Galar's Shiny Eternatus	3x redeems
Victory Victini	4x redeems
Ash's Pokemon set	6x redeems	This consists of Dracovish, Dragonite, Gengar, Sirfetch'd and Lucario. 4 sets are available.
Jiseok Lee's Garganacl	2x redeems
Gavin Michael's Palafin	2x redeems
Other Event Pokemon	Depends on event, please ask

For other events, please check my event sheet. I will say in advance that I would probably not be accepting a redeem offer for anything from gen 7 and below, and I'm not looking to trade my Galar birds + HOME Zera (at least) for redeems; anything marked in red and labelled NFT is definitely not for trade.
I also have a shiny sheet you can peruse, and a collection of (primarily Scarlet) Paradox shinies, with each and every Paradox caught only in Apriballs/rareballs.
As usual, redeems will need to be proofed—I would prefer video proofing, but A-button is acceptable (personally, I think video is easier, but whatever works best)! For further information on how I expect redeems to be proofed, please do check out this guide.
Aside from redeems, I am also interested in standard event trades! Feel free to approach me with an offer for either kind of trade. Thanks for looking!

I hope that your company was good to you last night. I don't know who's the winner, or if we've always been eachothers consolation prize.
If we are being honest, I think that you love me.
I'm not saying I have any proof, Just your alarm code and house key.
I hope that you understand I hurt myself tonight, and that I'm sorry for hurting you. I hope you look into V's eyes And desperately wish it was me who was underneath you.
Do you remember when you did the unthinkable to me? Promised that wasn't really you while you pinned me against sheets.
I know, I know, you said you were sorry. Looking so sincere And you say you think that you love me.
God, I fucking hope she turns out to be the girl of your dreams. And may you never ever ever do to another what you have so hideously done to me.

it hasnt been for a long time.
due to my struggle with mental health and executive dysfunction, having a clean room was always a pipe dream. but after 2-ish months of starting and stopping, its all okay. i rearranged some of my stuff. my bed is made. my floor is open. im able to do things. and i would go as far as to say im proud of myself.
i forgot what it was like to cuddle up in cold, fixed sheets and wake up in an accessible room with the windows open, birds chirping and the sound of cars rolling in the distance. its nice.
all i have to do is take down the dirty dishes, put the trash out, and vacuum

This is the first “big” job I have had since graduating college. My manager who hired me was an absolute dream to work with. He always made sure our team was okay, never loaded on too much work, and made sure everyone had a great time. Unfortunately, he was forced to leave by our director who refused to promote him out of jealousy because he was so well liked and successful, so he left for a better job.
Fast forward to our new manager and the team is in shambles. There is no communication, we are treated as drones, and he has no social awareness. Of course, he is best friends with our director and they make it a priority to make our work environment as miserable as possible.
The final straw was when they announced a restructure where everyone in our office who was friends with our director got raises and promotions, while the rest of us were left out to dry. When I had asked for a raise a month earlier, I was given a salary sheet of comparable jobs and told I was worth my wage.
On top of this, my grandmother was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and I had no PTO available to go visit her, and even if I did it would have been denied due to being in “peak season” for our office.
That same day the restructure was announced, I cleaned out my cubicle. The next morning I left my two week notice on my manager’s desk. In our office a four week notice is required, but I couldn’t tolerate to stay any longer and I only needed one more paycheck to make it through. I did not have another job lined up, I simply told my boss that my time there was done.
Fast forward to one week later, I land a job with better pay, better benefits, and they are letting me start later so I have time to visit my grandmother.
On someone’s last day in the office, it is normal to bring a goodbye treat and a card for the person who is leaving. My director and my manager avoided me like the plague, didn’t bring in anything, and didn’t even give me a card. I walked out with the last laugh because my favorite coworker also put in her resignation the same day I left, and now the team will struggle during “peak season”.
I am so proud of myself for prioritizing my family and mental health over my job, and getting the fuck out of there.

Self-improvement is kinda crazy.
One week you can feel on top of the world; you're being consistent with your habits, making progress in the gym, eating right, having unshakeable self-belief, etc.
It's just all going right.
Then within just a few days, you can go from sigma-male-nothing-can-stop-me-I'm-a-beast levels of enthusiasm to I'm-such-a-loser-all-I-do-is-lose levels of hate and frustration.
I'm sure you know this all too well. You've probably gone through multiple stages of both progression and regression that have made you doubt whether or not it is possible to stop slipping back into your old ways. I've been through the motions too many times to count, so I know: it sucks.
But have you ever wondered why you keep regressing to your old degenerate ways? Have you ever considered what causes it and when it happens?
Understanding this will be the first step towards achieving progress for longer and more often.
And don't worry! It's not because of some external force, genetic condition, or ingrained personality trait that is the cause of this. It's usually due to a lack of knowledge or certain misunderstandings.
Anybody can change with the correct awareness and beliefs. Truly. It just takes some time.
Here is my ultimate guide to why you keep regressing and struggling to progress. There are quite a few points, so let's not waste any more time.

Do You Deserve It?

Self-improvement is hard. If you don't find it difficult, you're probably doing something wrong.
Whether it is a business you're trying to build, a body you're trying to perfect, or just a simple habit you're trying to stick to, you will face resistance.
This resistance will manifest in countless ways: procrastination, fear, anxiety, doubt, perfectionism, avoidance, etc. How you react to and tolerate that resistance determines just how much you deserve to progress.
The reason for this is that it is the universe testing you to see if you deserve whatever desired result you're striving for. You ask the universe for a desired future, and in return, it challenges you to make sure you deserve it. These challenges from the universe will come as a form of resistance.
When you apply effort to something that you are resisting, you will get pain.
Effort x Resistance = Pain
However much pain you are willing to tolerate and persist with will predict how much success you will be given.
​

“To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.” ~ Charlie Munger

​
Do you tolerate and persist with 80% of the pain you have felt? Then the universe will give you 80% of the desired outcome. If it is 40%, then you'll get 40%. You can also think of this in terms of momentum.
The universe is always watching and will know when you're deserving of something. It almost works like a transaction: you want a desired outcome, the universe asks for pain as currency to pay for this outcome, you accumulate this currency and pay when you meet resistance with effort, and then you get the amount you deserve.
So ask yourself: how do you react to resistance? Do you give up quickly? Do you give in to resistance and reduce all effort that is needed?
Now ask yourself: do you deserve to achieve your goals given how much pain you tolerate and how much effort you meet resistance with?

You Are At War With Yourself

On the topic of pain, there is a form of resistance you feel that you might never have noticed. A form of resistance that will peak when you have the most momentum.
What is this form of resistance?
The fear of improving. The fear of forming a different, better identity.
All living things have a sort of factory setting that ensures every action they take is geared towards a better chance of survival. Otherwise, organisms would die out. Duh.
When you improve, you are moving further and further away from your current identity; you are transcending into someone different - into someone capable of achieving your goals.
And your current sense of self hates that. What you are essentially doing is committing a form of psychological suicide.
And remember, things are geared to survive. Your current self will put up a fight to try and keep you from evolving and killing your current identity.
It fights by creating fear, doubt, anxiety, etc. It will fight the hardest when you are closest to killing it and transcending. This is when you are most likely to concede to the negative emotions it conjures up.
This is why you have a wave-like pattern of ups and downs. Your current self keeps fighting to pull you back, and it does so with formidable determination.
You must take note when you are gaining momentum and reaching a peak. These are the moments when pain and resistance must be tolerated most.
Also, remember: you know yourself best. So your current self will pit every weakness against you. It won't play nice and most certainly won't play fair. It's fighting to survive!

The Brick Wall Of Beliefs

Beliefs dictate how reality manifests to you. How you perceive the world, other people, and everything else is the result of your belief systems.
You could be getting pranked into a false sense of reality for your whole life.
For example, if you believe that bulls get provoked by the colour red, you will go through life adhering to that. So if you see a matador wave a red cape in front of a raging bull, you will think: "Oh, it's angry because of the red!". When in truth, bulls are red-green colour-blind. It is the motion of the cape that provokes them.
That was a trivial example, but imagine how many false or negative beliefs have a significant impact.
And once you believe something and receive feedback, the belief strengthens and solidifies. Then it becomes harder to break and has more emotion tied to it
Understand, however, that no belief is necessarily bad. If your beliefs are in accordance with nature and are conducive towards your goals, who is to say they are bad?
Unfortunately, most people will go through life without realising this and continue to have beliefs that work against and limit them.
Maybe you believe that:

• You can't improve
• Improving is hard
• It is hard to be happy
• It is difficult to change your beliefs

If you believe these, they will likely become true due to feedback loops.
The most important belief is believing that you are capable of changing your beliefs. Neuroplasticity has proven that you can change the neural circuits in your brain. You are not fixed. You are malleable and are in control of rewiring your brain.
Use this information to your advantage: set yourself up for success by converting negative beliefs into good ones.
Your beliefs will determine what actions you take. If you want to change your actions, change your beliefs.
If you believe improving is difficult or takes forever, then it will present itself as so.
If you believe that you will always regress, then you will.
If you believe you can't do x, y, or z, you probably won't be able to.
Set yourself up for success. Adopt serving beliefs and act accordingly. Get positive results and let the feedback response do the rest.
Beliefs can make or break you. What would you prefer?

Diving Straight Into The Deep End

This is dedicated to my fellow perfectionists, over-achievers, and people who set way too high a standard for themselves.
Firstly, hey! Secondly: it sucks, doesn't it?
When I first decided to create a routine, it took me two days. Two. Days. How f*cking crazy is that? I reckon That's a record.
I over-perfected the shit out of that routine. I included: meditation, journalling, playing an instrument, learning a language, reading time, writing time, gym work, yoga, jogging, meditation again, studying, visualisation, deep work... and much more. Oh, and I also planned every single 30 minutes of the day.
Shit, I feel overwhelmed just reading that. Wtf was I thinking?
I jumped into a routine - that should take years to implement - within just a few seconds. And I had hardly ever done most of those habits before!
Do you think it was sustainable? Of course not. I stuck to it for about one week (if that).
My past self really did have his bruh moments.
It took me a few more (ok, many more) attempts to figure out how slowly I should take it.
So bro, chill with it a bit at first, y'know? Don't dive straight into the deep end. My journey started properly by underachieving. Only then I could build on it.
So, instead of doing a hundred things at once, go reaaaal low. Lower than you think you should. You've got to play limbo with this shit.
Otherwise, you'll burn out and overwhelm yourself.
Instead of setting a goal of 30 mins of meditation for 30 days, set a goal of 3 mins of meditation for five days. Once you've proven yourself capable, then add more to the discipline. You can also add new habits to complement it.
And if you struggle with that, go even lower. There is no shame in it - you don't need to be a sigma-male, nut-sack-grindset, wake-up-at-3:45 am-every-day, and meditate-57-hours-per-day nerd to "improve". There is no rush. Rushing into it is more likely to waste your time and cause you to default to old ways.
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A super-cool quick tip: Instead of setting goals and putting them on a pedestal, create "messy experiments". If, like me, you have consistently been inconsistent with your disciplines, you will probably feel like you will fail before you start, creating undue tension and stress.
By creating experiments, you remove this mindset, giving it a less stressful appearance.

• Failing a goal: "Oh no, I failed! I'm bad at this. I keep struggling to stick to things."
• Failing an experiment: "Oh, this didn't go to plan! I will create another experiment and, based upon what I learned, alter it slightly."

This has worked well for me. Experiments I don't tend to over-plan or perfect. Goals and stuff like that I do. Why don't you experiment (sorry) and see what works for you?

Are You Someone That You Want to Improve?

This point is of such significance that I created a separate Reddit post about it.
Are you sure that you are someone that you want the best for? Are you somebody that you want to care for and look after? Do you treat yourself more like a friend or a foe?
Has it ever occurred to you the possibility that you don't like yourself enough to be better?
Have you ever gone out of your way to thoroughly improve the quality of life for somebody you find insufferable?
I doubt it.
If you see yourself as insufferable, it will be near-impossible to progress. Your beliefs determine your actions, remember.
If you act out of alignment with your beliefs you will create incongruence. Act in a way that says: "I want to improve", but then think of yourself as someone who deserves the worst, and it just ain't gonna work, man.
You'll be able to make some progress, but you will fall back to default quickly. Self-sabotage will be way too rife.
If you believe this is the case, please try to focus on rekindling your relationship with yourself.

Don't Raise The Roof; Raise Your Standards

Would you tolerate going for one week without washing? What about one month?
How about your teeth; how long would you tolerate going without brushing them?
Now, take note of every time that you have broken this intolerance. Chances are, you haven't (at least I hope not, you dirty animal).
Instead of raising goals and reaching high into the sky, raise your standards instead. Standards you never breach, goals you rarely reach. It even has a nice lil rhyme!
Putting goals up high inflates their importance, making you think they're difficult to obtain. The more unobtainable something seems, the less reasonable it will seem to act towards. Thus, you won't act as you are required.
If, instead, you set goals as your new standard, you will work towards ensuring you never dip below them or breach them.
Think right now about the default habits and actions you keep returning to. Notice how you never go lower than that? It's because you won't tolerate it. Lowering yourself past that would disgust you or make you feel slightly sick.
When you notice yourself gaining momentum or starting to peak, be aware and make it a standard from now on. This will help prevent you from regressing.
You can do this for both short-term and long-term situations. Either way, it shifts your ass into gear if implemented correctly.
Remind yourself of this often. It can take some time to stick.

You're A Little Too Cozy

You are likely improving yourself to make your situation better. That's what you think.
The more likely reason is that you're trying to escape an undesirable situation. Instead of chasing something, you're running from something.
The more undesirable - or uncomfortable - your situation, the more drive you will have to free yourself from it.
So, if you're content with how things are, you have nothing to run from.
This creates less urgency and a less powerful call to action.
Lots of successful people (whose wealth isn't family derived) have track records of being in horrible situations.
If you're doing pretty solid right now, you might not be able to justify the effort needed to do the work required to improve.
I'm not saying that you need to make yourself seriously uncomfortable! That would be dumb.
However, some situational analysis could come in handy.
What would your dream position be in five years? Would you reach that dream situation, given how you currently behave? Give this some deep thought, not a barely-conscious read. This stuff is vital.
Compare who you are right now with who you need to be to achieve your dreams. Do they match? If not, what sort of future do you envision if you continue as you are?
Explore this more and see if it helps. Jordan Peterson has a course called "the self-authoring Program", which is all of this, but in detail. I've not personally bought it, but I've heard great things.

"You're a victim!"

The victim mentality is yet another one of the unfortunate cancers that society propagates as normality. Most of the time, it is promoted and endorsed.
Victim mentality is phenomenal... if you want to sacrifice your freedom to take control of your life.
Don't get me wrong - shit happens to people. Real bad things. And there will be circumstances that call for a time to say: "It's not my fault!". This is rare. And in any case, being indignant has never helped anybody.
As long as you offload blame for your current circumstance onto other people and external forces, you will remain unable to take control of your life. You will perpetually flee from responsibility.
It isn't anyone's fault.
It isn't some higher being's fault.
It isn't that one person who said that one thing that caused that one thing's fault.
Where you currently are is a result of every action you've ever taken. Sometimes things will happen to you that are out of your control. How you react and use these experiences is within your control, however.
The more control and excuses you attach to other people, the less power you have over your development.
Having the "f*ck everyone else, it's all their fault, capitalism is a scam, life's unfair, blah blah blah" mentality is such an easy way out. So firstly, how boring! Secondly, Nobody with sense will want to be around you. And thirdly, you will shut down avenues of improvement that will stunt your growth.
It isn't easy to suddenly feel responsible for so much in your life. It might feel quite daunting! But it is much better than living your life as a shell of what you could have been.
Hopefully, at the same time, it feels liberating. You can finally take back control.
Take responsibility, and the growth potential becomes infinite.

Direction, Direction, Direction.

Do you have clear goals? Do you know exactly who you need to become for these goals?
A vivid picture of the future should be painted in your mind. This is vital for many reasons:

1. Trajectory prevents chaos and anxiety. Instead, it promotes order and a sense of direction.
2. It allows the subconscious to justify work and give reason to your actions.
3. He who is lost cannot be found.

If you do not have goals or an understanding of who you want to become - and I mean a really clear understanding - then you will go through life blind. You will stumble into who you become rather than intentionally choosing the best future for yourself.
If you do tasks for the sake of it - like meditation and journalling - and don't apply any reason or purpose behind them, you will struggle to maintain them.
You won't be able to justify doing them when resistance comes into play.
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"He who has a why can bear almost any how" - Friedrich Nietzsche

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Once you have an intense and clear image of the ideal future set out for yourself, you will naturally find aligning your actions for improvement easier. Your subconscious will no longer be working against you.
You'll be shooting in the dark if you're uncertain who you're becoming.
This will make your actions seem unimportant or futile.
As long as there is a lack of intention behind your actions, It will be hard to track any form of significant improvement.
Find your "what", and you will have a "why". This will empower every action you take.

You're Not Tracking Enough

If you do not track what you do:

1. How will you be able to know if you do or do not make progress?
2. You will not be able to identify patterns for your progression/regression.

Firstly: how certain are you that you are not making progress?
If you're not tracking your habits and what you're doing, you will struggle to evaluate your situation and how you're doing.
Use google sheets - or something similar - and note some important metrics:

• Were you consistent today?
• How focused were you?
• How did you find it?
• Is anything else of significance to add?

Over time you will build a bank of understanding and, most importantly, a way to identify your highs and lows.
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You need an objective way to identify what you're doing. It will allow you to identify any emerging patterns that either aid or hinder your progress.
Once you notice these patterns, you can learn to identify them as they happen, allowing you to rectify them. Understanding yourself and patterns of action that lead to regression is paramount to preventing it from happening.
The first step is always awareness.
Become your own lil data scientist. Seeing tangible data about yourself and using it to learn more about yourself to grow can be surprisingly fun.

Concluding Thoughts And Stuff

It's important not to beat yourself up when you have dips; it's all a part of the learning process. I know it's disheartening after all the work you've put in, but no experience is a bad experience.
Setbacks are necessary to grow: you need them to learn and develop.
So, be grateful for the setbacks. They are a test for you to prove your worth - to see how much you deserve to progress.
You should feel honoured that the universe has chosen you to rise to the occasion.
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The purpose of the post was to give you insight into why progression can seem so challenging. I talked little about solutions, as that would make the post kinda chunky.
Although I touch on how to solve each issue slightly, there is much more depth to them that I want to describe separately.
Thus, I will make future posts with solutions dedicated to each separate issue and how I have personally dealt with them. That's the plan, at least!
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There are probably a bunch more points to discuss, but these are the ones that have been most prevalent for me.
So lmk what you think! I'd love to hear anything you've learnt from experience.
Thanks for reading.

We are running Decent into Avernus and they are going to embark in a dream to discover where Zariel's sword is hidden. In the adventure, the dream's storyline is vague and boring so I will completely change it. They will start in Celestia, where they will meet Zariel among other archangels, so I though they can be part of the army there but I would like to keep all the archangels armies as celestials. I already asked the player how their characters would be if they were celestials. I was going to change only their appearance, but now I wonder if it would be better to ask them to change the race of their characters to aasimar for this one time. The dream will last only one session and I know they will really enjoy this storyline and the changes. What would be best? To just let them use their normal sheet or ask them to change the race? I don't want to do it in the middle of the session just in case they freak out and get nervous.