Normally I commute to Groningen 4-5 times a week by train, and when I am in Groningen I use my bike which I always store at the big bike storage near the station. Last week however I had to get to the emergency room in Leeuwarden (my partner was in an accident) and a colleague drove me there. Now I am unable to go to Groningen to relocate my bike (and get that colored paper sticker off of my tire) because I have to be at home to take care of my partner and our kid.
My question: Is there a phone number I can call to explain the situation to prevent my bike being "abducted" by the AFAC? (also, is just removing the colored paper sticker enough to "reset the 12 day countdown timer" , or do you have to physically move the bike)
Thank you!
Sorry for my steenkolen English

Let’s make this nice and easy for y’all:
- I work with animals at a humane society. There isn’t an animal I don’t like, though I’m hugely a cat person over a dog person at this point in my life. My job is not easy and I have a crude sense of humor to deal with the things I deal with day to day. I can make a joke out of pretty much anything .
- I am plus sized and I like to think I'm like a 5/10 on the attractive scale. I grew up with a poor self-esteem, but it’s definitely gotten better and I am learning to love myself.
- I am incredibly independent and have lived alone since I was 21. I am pretty inexperienced when it comes to dating/relationships.
- I love binge watching tv shows. My go to shows are The Office, King of the Hill, Grey's Anatomy, SVU, criminal minds, plus several other shows. Open to suggestions for more binge worthy shows.
- Social Anxiety is real, I love exploring chill places like museums, zoos, and thrift stores. Not a huge bar person.
- I am VERY childfree so if you want kids I am not the person for you. You got a cat/dog/exotic/fish? Sign me uppppp. Their is not an animal I dislike!

• I’m bisexual/ probably asexual (it’s complicated lol)

- I am a homebody but would love to find someone who can draw me out of my cave once in a while :)

• if your outside the US I won’t respond I’m sorry. I’m ok with a LDR to a certain extent but I wanna keep it realistic

​
What I'm looking for:
- Someone who is loves to joke around but also I want someone who can get into deep conversations and talk about things in depth.
- I would prefer to take things slow (especially if its long distance) I am not one to rush labels and though I dont mind exclusivity I just want to hang out and have fun. IM NOT INTO HOOK UPS so sorry if thats what your looking for. I can vibe with people and be in the mood but if you come out strong I'm not into it.
- Preferably someone on the tubby side too who can feel my pain lol I like the Teddy Bear types.
- 25-37 and in the US/ideally the midwest/Nebraska so meeting could be possible in the near future.
- Memes and pics of animals is ideal. Funny videos, music you like, anything that lets me know what you enjoy are things I really enjoy to receive
Would love to hear from you!!

My in-laws are going to be here from China for quite some time. I work during the day and my wife works nights so she's sleeping during the day. They're in their late 60s.
I think they are bored out of their mind hanging around my house all day. The only thing we can offer them is a few streaming channels in mandarin. Back home they live in a walking city so they can just go out to stores and what not whenever they want.
Is any one aware of things around the county, preferably near Lawrenceville, that I can propose to keep them entertained? I've reached out to the library system to see if they have books in mandarin. I know the County has senior centers but I think the language barrier will be a problem.

I have never had this issue before but the order I accepted never made it to chipotles side. I showed them the name I had and they rushed to make an order and the guy ran over and handed it to me, I made a mistake and did not look at the name closely.. it was wrong. I hit accept and went to deliver the order 7 minutes away. I got to the customer and BEHOLD the name on the bag is not the customer’s and I had a facepalm moment as I explained to them what happened and I said I will rush back and get your correct order… I returned to chipotle and they checked the system and out of 4 orders in the day, none had that name. So I contacted support who said it was never received by the store and they see it was stuck in the system somehow. It took nearly a full hour and 4 different agents to resolve the issue and get me unassigned which was the first thing I asked, they all said they could do it but then just ended chat. Accept the last agent who actually removed me from the order successfully allowing me to continue my day after losing an hour and having the customer text me to cancel the order which I was trying 😅 I really didn’t know how to go about it any other way as nothing like this has happened to me in my experiences with deliveries before. Sure glad the last agent got me sorted out but after I logged off and ended shift to go home and make lunch I’m getting texts from the customer still?!?! I thought it didn’t let them keep texting us afterwards, like it was a proxy number or something?!
Hopefully they still get their order and DD doesn’t pull some Bs with them about a refund or replacing the order, as it never got to the store in the first place and support even said so.
Edit* after words to afterwards, And suport to support.

So I read a post that reminded me of my dad. This man is the human form of toxic masculinity, he’s gotten better since becoming a grandpa. But you know no crying near him cause that’s for the weak no hugs or any form of affection you get it. Now for the event 2017 hurricane Maria hit my island Puerto Rico and just my luck I got my period during it. Now the pain was unbearable the bleeding was like a massacre I was in the shower passing out from exhaustion. No energy no gas for the cars no hospitals or doctors available. Now this 55 year old tank man left me with my mom and went by foot to look for an open store. He got me maxi pads, pain killers, dark chocolate (it helps with the pain) salty chips (he said it should help with the bleeding🤣) and lemon juice. Almost 2 hours later he came back told my mom to cover me I was sweating so she had me in underwear. He started to throw me a gallon of cold rain water to regulate my temperature. This man who never touched me was stroking my hair, holding my head while giving me lemon juice. When I looked at him he was crying not full but I saw tears. I asked how he knew what pads were 🤣 his answer “Your mother gave me 2 kids who do you think took care of her during quarantine” That day I saw my dad in a different light. I realized he was always present from the sidelines. Not emotionally available but always ready to give the fight to make sure his kids are safe. Now seeing him with my son I’m teaching him how to be emotionally available and connected with his grandson. He did his best with what he had and it was enough. Someday I may print this and show it to him to thank him without actually saying it cause he won’t like that since you know he’s a manly man 🤣

Pastel Community Update (March 31, 2023)
The next generation NFT focused blockchain. Certifiable authenticity. Permanent storage. Negligible fees. Build, secure, and scale your Web3 ecosystem with Pastel.
The Pastel Team has been extremely busy with a number of major development updates, partnership rollouts, and product releases. Check back here each week for new developments
Check Pastel channels for:
⭐Weekly community snapshots shared across our various channels.
🐾Quarterly updates released via our newsletter.
☎️Weekly community town halls / AMAs directly with the Pastel team. Come prepared with your questions, comments, and feedback!
📣Monthly Twitter Spaces with u/doodlestone and u/panthony
Join us for a Twitter Space with @astardegens on 3/31 at 12:00 PM EST as we dive into the world of #DAOs, #NFTs, and the current market trends!
Key Updates:
🚨Partnership with Astar Network🚨
Pastel Network is excited to announce that it will be working with @AstarNetwork, a layer1 parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem. Astar provides the infrastructure for building dApps with EVM and WASM smart contracts offering developers true interoperability with cross-consensus messaging (XCM) and a cross-virtual machine (XVM). Astar and Pastel will collaborate with the goal of providing Pastel’s Web3 tooling solutions — Sense and Cascade — to its NFT ecosystem. This collaboration signifies the continued successes of both Pastel and Astar, and is a massive step forward for the overall NFT ecosystem. It is a testament to the growing need for NFT reliability, security and verifiability, solved via Pastel’s advanced infrastructure.
Learn more on Medium
In case you missed it, please listen to our twitter space with @ArtZero_io, @agoric, and @Kryha_io teams discussing all things NFT Security & Marketplaces.
🚨Discord Banner Competition🚨
Thank you to all the talented artists that participated in our Discord Banner competition, so many wonderful and unique pieces. You can still view all of them here🎨 Congratulations to our winners: (1)Zaccube, (2)CThumbs, (3)CryptoDNA
🚨Collaborations🚨
Happening Live now or if you missed our Twitter Space with @AstarDegens on 3/31 at noon EST we dive into the world of #DAOs, #NFTs, and the current market trends! Listen to this insightful discussion here
Check out our collaboration with @Agoric, @kryhia_io, and @Sandytoes2211 as SmartMint was used to mint their work.
🚨SmartMint on Twitter 🚨
It is our great pleasure to announce that SmartMint will now have a Twitter presence. The SmartMint twitter account has officially launched.
We are always looking for artists to collaborate with, please inquire on any social media platforms
🚨Addition of Status Page🚨
We're continuously #building to ensure that our users have the most powerful Web3/NFT infrastructure at their disposal
We recently released a Status Page so you can monitor the performance of our infrastructure & services in real time. Check it out here!
🚨Wrapped PSL🚨
Wrapped PSL or wPSL exists to transfer tokens across platforms. We have noticed the buzz about wPSL (wrapped PSL), so we’ve created a video about it! 🔗wPSL holders can store on wallets such as MetaMask 💹You can also trade on Ethereum DEXs
wPSL is available on Uniswap. Watch our video and learn more here
🚨Pastel Testnet Faucet Release🚨
Our Testnet Faucet is now live. The launch of this independent network enables users to obtain LSP (Pastel Testnet Tokens) to experiment with and develop in the Pastel Testnet environment. This gives users the ability to experiment with Pastel features without having to spend valuable PSL on the mainnet.
Learn more about Pastel's Testnet Faucet
🚨Becoming a Supernode Operator🚨
Become a Supernode operator today & gain increased credibility in the validator community & earn exclusive rewards from the foundation, such as PSL or NFT airdrops, in addition to receiving Block & Transactional Rewards.
🚨Cascade Protocol🚨
Cascade has numerous concrete advantages over competing systems such as IPFS & Arweave, particularly when it comes to censorship resistance, data permanence & data accessibility.
Check out our technical paper on Cascade, Pastel's storage layer. Cascade is an extremely powerful & robust storage system for true data permanence that is both completely decentralized & highly scalable. Learn more here
🚨Sense Protocol🚨
Sense is a Near-Duplicate NFT detection protocol powered by the Pastel Network. Assess the relative rareness of a given NFT against near-duplicate metadata on networks like Ethereum, Solana, etc to prevent prevalent scams or theft. Try it yourself here and watch it work here
🚨Monet 1.2 Mainnet Release 🚨
The Pastel team has been working hard on this upgrade that will be live soon. Here are some features that will be included in the upgrade. Learn more about Monet 1.2 Mainnet release. Users will have the opportunity to experiment with Monet before the release using testnet.
-Storage challenges in Cascade guarantee ongoing data permanence & decentralization on the network across active & compliant Supernodes. -Activation of Supernode Health and State Challenges: Similar to Proof of Storage, Health & State Challenges will guarantee the ongoing active and enabled state of each Supernode client on the network. -Stabilization of Sense Protocol: Improvements to Chrome Driver usage, updates to Webtools 1.3, and implementation of additional tickets. -Release of the OpenAPI Gateway: Production-ready Gateway will be deployed via the Mainnet with support for a number of new endpoints, asynchronous execution, Ansible support for independent deployment, and a graphical user interface for interaction.
🚨2023 Roadmap and Review of 2022🚨
Pastel released its 2023 roadmap, including a review of 2022. Pastel Network 2022 in review and roadmap for 2023 shows great progress made in the previous year and much promise for the year ahead.
Upcoming year

• Expedite development release cycles of Testnet and Mainnet upgrades — such as with versions Monet and Van Gogh
• Build stronger cross-chain bridges, specifically with Ethereum Polygon, and Polkadot
• Enhance SmartMint and develop new features
• Refine user and partner experience with the roll-out of new technical resources and tools
• Expanding our network of partners across more L2s, DApps, enterprise user-cases, native L1s, and beyond
• Further increase our exposure to the community of technical users, non-technical users, and creators
• Launch of Mobile Wallet as well as new PastelId APIs to work with light wallets
• Supernode Storage Challenges. A novel mechanism by which Pastel Supernodes verify that other nodes are following the rules of the protocol and storing all files appropriately.

Upcoming Mainnet Releases

• Q1: Mainnet Upgrade: Monet Release 1.2
• Q2: Mainnet Upgrade: Monet Release 1.3
• Q3: Mainnet Upgrade: Van Gogh Release 2.0
• Q4 Mainnet Upgrade: Van Gogh Release 2.1

🚨News and Developments🚨
🥝Check out our latest YouTube video featuring an amazing conversation with NFT artist @wondermundo!
🍧Check out this Twitter Space with the @agoric and @kryha_io teams discussing decentralized systems
📀CoinTelegraph looks into industry leaders’ tips (inlcuding Pastel’s own Anthony Georgiades) for regulators
🌸Check out this Twitter Space with u/gameofskills discussing Web3 gaming and much more
🐱Catcoin discusses the Astar partnerhship
⚓Pastel Networks co-founder, Anthony Georgiades talks about what regulators can do in this Cointelegraph article
💡 Check out this Medium article on how Sense is revolutionizing NFT provenance written by Ima-Abasi Pius Joseph
🌡️ Pastel Networks co-founder, Anthony Georgiades talks about his optimism for the market in this CoinDesk article
👀 CoinDesk features co-founder, Anthony Georgiades, and what Coinbase's transition means for crypto
🌵Bitcoin Insider discusses how Pastel protects and stores artists’ NFTs
💚Check out how Pastel Network protects and stores artist’s NFTs in this Bitcoin Insider article.
-Crypto News
⭐CoinDesk Twitter provides you with daily crypto updates
🌼CoinDesk delves into the battle of crypto vs traditional finance
🌀ABC calls cryptocurrency a “bystander” in SVB collapse
👛CoinTelegraph has some interesting insights on the market and blockchains
🌺CoinTelegraph shares how to bridge the gap to web3
-Pastel Archive
🚧We released a Builder’s Guide for ecosystem partners integrating w/ Pastel. Come build with us here.
🌯wPSL or wrapped is explained in this video and
🚧Pastel is completely open-source. Check out what we are working on here.
💫If you could not attend our Twitter Space with u/wondermundo on 2/17, hear it here
🌀Testnet tutorial video
🏆Learn more about Sense and Cascade
🔦Want to try out Sense for yourself? Upload your NFT here to obtain the rareness score of your NFT.
📹Check out this youtube demonstration showing what happened when we compared OpenSea’s new duplicate detection system to Sense Sense Comp Analysis
-Pastel news and essays
♠️NFT real estate explained
⭐Astar Partnership intro
🖌️Monet 1.2 preview
🐋NFTs and climate change
🚀Value of NFTs explained
If you have not done so already, please take a moment to join our growing community base:
🐓 Follow Pastel on Twitter
🙉Follow Smartmint on Twitter
👾Join Pastel's Discord Server
👽Join Pastel on Reddit
✈️Join Pastel’s Telegram
🖥️Subscribe to our Youtube channel

I have read so many horror stories about purchasing from the Google Store, that I have told myself in the past that I wouldn't use it. However that changed recently when my SIL dropped my 6 Pro, cracking the screen. Google was offering $306 trade-in value on a 7 Pro, whilst Best Buy and T-mobile were offering $58 and $37 respectively.
Well, I received my phone quickly (being sure to request signature release, which FedEx ignored until I told the driver I needed to sign for it), as well as the trade-in kit. I wiped the old phone, made a video of it turning on and placing it into the kit, and shipped it off.
Got an email two days later saying that the phone had been received, was evaluated, and that I would be receiving $356 in compensation... $50 more than I was initially quoted.
Anyways like I said, I've seen so many negative stories about this whole purchase process, that I thought I'd never go through with it myself. I'm glad I did as it netted me nearly $300 more than the next best offer.
I hope everyone else that goes through this process has as successful a transaction as I did.
That is all! Cheers

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https://youtu.be/z_zN_Ha5QME
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We exist in this world because the laws of nature ultimately treat all living beings fairly, and the basis of fairness is equivalent exchange. If you agree with this principle, please continue reading.
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My name is Wang Zhuyun, of the Zhuang ethnic group, from Huayuan in Xixiangtang District, Nanning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
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The world was originally perfect, and all processes must develop towards perfection. To achieve this perfect foundation, one must be human, because everything revolves around humans.
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The universe is both human, and humans are part of the universe.
The standard for being human is to possess all four elements of water, earth, wood, and fire.
This world is composed of four parts: water, earth, wood, and fire. Water represents blue, earth represents yellow, wood represents green, and fire represents red. Water represents 1 and 6, earth represents 2 and 7, wood represents 3 and 8, and fire represents 4 and 9. Water and wood represent masculinity, while earth and fire represent femininity. Judaism represents water, Christianity represents earth, Islam represents wood, and Buddhism represents fire. Water and wood are dominated by males, while earth and fire are dominated by females. Water and wood represent the process of making oneself stronger, while earth and fire represent the process of making oneself weaker. Water and wood represent life, while earth and fire represent death.
There are four highest levels of existence in this world: water produces earth, earth produces wood, wood produces fire, and fire produces water.
Water represents containers, the brain, wisdom, and space.
Earth represents matter, the heart, and also represents allocation.
Wood represents life, human reproductive organs, fuel, power source, and energy.
Fire represents movement, the behavior of burning life, consumption, and human legs.
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First comes the container, which is water, then comes the material, which is earth, and with the material comes life, which is represented by wood. As living beings multiply, they eventually fight for survival resources, which is the final process of burning life. Within these four categories, water and wood dominate the process of making oneself stronger, while earth and fire dominate the process of making oneself weaker. They also represent everything that humanity pursues, such as wisdom, material possessions, life, and movement, as well as those who pursue wisdom, material possessions, life, and movement.
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This text appears to be a philosophical interpretation of the concept of "土" (tǔ) in Chinese culture. According to the text, "土" represents the current stage of the Earth, which is in a process of being dominated by "water" (shuǐ) and "earth" (tǔ). The text also interprets human features such as hair color (yellow and black) and eye color (blue) as symbolic of the dominance of "earth" in the current world, as well as a representation of the way in which "earth" absorbs "water." The text concludes that "water and earth" is the highest level of existence at this stage, representing a way of living that involves using wisdom to obtain material goods.
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The creatures represented by earth are the supreme ruler of the current world. As we are currently in the phase ruled by earth; everything happens around earth; the crowd represented by earth is the true ruler of the world. Earth absorbs water, which makes earth to evolve to its final stage at this phase, becoming the most advanced existence. In the world dominated by earth, most of the crowd tend to more material. Both western and eastern history, are representations of water absorbed by earth. For instance, in the west, early European culture was impacted by Greece culture. Greece is water and judaism by the jews are presentations of water. The religion built from earth absorbing water is Christianity. In the east, this process is led by the descendants of Yan Di and Yellow Emperor. Yan Di and Yellow Emperor represent fire and earth respectively. As the world is currently dominated by earth, Yellow Emperor will become the final ruler. Since China has always been ruled by earth, Christianity should be widely spread in China.
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This passage is expressing the idea that the food we eat represents the element of wood, and when it is digested and absorbed by the stomach and intestines, it generates the element of fire. The nutrients produced from this process are then transported into the blood, which represents the element of water being created by fire. The heart circulates the nutrients throughout the body, allowing the cells to produce life, which represents the element of earth being created by water. This cycle then starts over again, with earth giving rise to wood.
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"Wood is represented by the food we eat. After being digested and absorbed by the stomach and intestines, wood generates fire, and the nutrients produced are transported to the bloodstream, representing the birth of water from fire. The heart pumps nutrients throughout the body, representing the birth of earth from water, where cells receive nutrients and produce life, which in turn represents the birth of wood from earth.
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When a woman becomes pregnant, earth represents her physical body, as it is material, while the fetus in her womb represents wood, representing life. Therefore, earth represents women. In the religion that represents earth, which is Christianity, the highest authority figure representing earth is a woman. Thus, in a world dominated by earth, God is represented by a woman, who represents earth."
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This statement suggests that in different worlds dominated by different elements, the representation of God takes on a specific gender and element. In a world dominated by water, God is represented as a male figure associated with water. In a world dominated by earth, God is represented as a female figure associated with earth. In a world dominated by wood, God is represented as a male figure associated with wood. In a world dominated by fire, God is represented as a female figure associated with fire.
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"In a world dominated by water, God is represented as a male figure through water.
In a world dominated by earth, God is represented as a female figure through earth.
In a world dominated by wood, God is represented as a male figure through wood.
In a world dominated by fire, God is represented as a female figure through fire.
​
When an element becomes the core key that produces another element, the relationship between the two can be established. For example:
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Water generates earth, where water represents currency. When you put gold, which represents earth as a material, in a cup and keep pouring water, the more water you pour, the higher the price of gold.
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Water generates earth, where water is the container, such as a box or a cabinet, and earth is the object stored in it. Putting something in a box is water generating earth.
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Water generates earth, where the capital required for enterprise production is water, and the products produced by the enterprise are earth.
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Earth generates wood, which includes seed germination, cloning, and mechanical life.
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Wood generates fire, which requires labor and energy for development. The most direct way to obtain them is through colonization. The most typical example is the British colonization of India, which is a country dominated by wood. Countries dominated by fire can only become powerful by obtaining wood. For example, the United States and the United Kingdom are both fire-dominated countries, and the development of the United States was due to obtaining wood, such as African American slaves who represent wood.
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Oil dollars, where oil represents energy, and the Middle East and Africa, which represent wood, have abundant oil reserves.
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Wood generates fire, where hair represents life and wood. Wood generating fire leads to baldness. Baldness is most common in countries dominated by fire, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey. People with bald heads are often referred to as rulers of the bald heads. The country we know as Turkey even calls itself the land of the Turkic people, which is a reference to baldness.
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Wood generates fire, where obtaining fire from wood is like drilling wood for fire.
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Wood generates fire, where smoking is sacrificing physical health to gain satisfaction from the burning process.
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Wood generates fire, where Indians who love to dance, unable to escape the influence of fire, use a peaceful way to embrace it.
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Fire generates water, where education passes on knowledge and skills gained through the consumption of life to the next generation.
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Fire generates water, where inflation occurs when a country consumes a large amount of resources and needs to print money. The consumption of resources is fire, while printing money is water. Therefore, the consumption of resources requires printing money, and fire generates water.
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Water generates earth, where the more money is printed, the more water there is. However, resources are limited, and the more money is printed, the higher the price of goods will be, which is water generating earth.
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Fire generates water, where accumulated experience through labor is used to improve and enhance technology.
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Using animal mating as an example:
Wood generates fire through the mating process. Fire generates water through ejaculation. Water generates earth through female conception. Earth generates wood through the birth and reproduction of life."
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Three Lives, Isotopes, Surface Brothers, Taboo, and the Law of Unity
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A world's operational mode: Three Lives
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In a certain stage, only one element will revolve around, and the other three elements will consume themselves to make one element stronger.
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In a water-dominated world, earth consumes itself to produce wood, wood consumes itself to produce fire, fire consumes itself to produce water, and eventually enters the final stage of water generating earth.
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In an earth-dominated world, wood consumes itself to produce fire, fire consumes itself to produce water, water consumes itself to produce earth, and eventually enters the final stage of earth generating wood.
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In a wood-dominated world, fire consumes itself to produce water, water consumes itself to produce earth, earth consumes itself to produce wood, and eventually enters the final stage of wood generating fire.
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In a fire-dominated world, water consumes itself to produce earth, earth consumes itself to produce wood, wood consumes itself to produce fire, and eventually enters the final stage of fire generating water.
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This operational mode is called Three Lives, where Three Lives refers to the self-consumption of the three elements, and Isotopes refers to everything that revolves around one element.
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Taking the earth-dominated world as an example, wood consumes itself to provide the energy that fire needs, namely oil. Wood generates fire, fire consumes itself to accumulate technology and obtain rewards through labor, namely money. Fire generates water, water consumes itself to provide the funding needed for earth, namely entrepreneurship and product manufacturing. Water generates earth, and finally consumes material to make life better, namely earth generating wood.
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What do Water, Earth, Wood, and Fire represent in this world?
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The Middle East, Africa, India, and the British colonization of India, which made it stronger, are all representatives of Wood. Another example is the oil from the Middle East and Africa, which is also Wood, while the United States represents Fire. Wood generates Fire, and wealth is harvested through the petrodollar.
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At the beginning of the founding of the United States, slavery and the trafficking of black slaves were also Wood generating Fire. Black people and Africa, where they live, are representatives of Wood. Countries that represent Fire include the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
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Wood consumes itself to produce Fire, such as the current Middle East and Africa, which produce oil to drive the world. Fire consumes itself to produce Water. Countries dominated by Fire, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, improve their technology through continuous experimentation and are also educationally strong. Fire generates Water, but there is also a negative form, which is inflation, that is, robbing wealth by constantly printing money. A typical example that is still in operation is the petrodollar, which harvests wealth by binding oil to the dollar. Fire generates Water, and money is printed to harvest wealth.
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Water generates Earth.
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B isotope, the necessary condition for the ruling class
In a world ruled by water, the presence of both water and wood is necessary. Water gives birth to soil, but wood must consume too much soil. Then, fire is generated from wood, followed by water, and this forms a virtuous cycle.
In a world ruled by soil, the presence of both soil and fire is necessary. Soil gives birth to wood, but fire must consume too much wood. Then, water is generated from fire, followed by soil, and this forms a virtuous cycle.
In a world ruled by wood, the presence of both wood and water is necessary. Wood generates fire, but water must consume too much fire. Then, soil is generated from water, followed by wood, and this forms a virtuous cycle.
In a world ruled by fire, the presence of both fire and soil is necessary. Fire generates water, but soil must consume too much water. Then, wood is generated from soil, followed by fire, and this forms a virtuous cycle.
Taking soil as an example, in countries dominated by soil, wood is produced from soil. When there is too much material, people pursue a better life and become more interested in the process of wood being produced from soil. However, at the same time, people become lazy, and as more and more wood is produced, people become more and more interested in indulging in pleasure. At this point, fire is needed to burn the excess wood, which is competition and consumption, and this is how wood generates fire.
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Who represents soil, who represents fire
In Europe, some who are dominated by fire like to run around and become villains, such as the Aryans and Anglo-Saxons, while others who do not want to be villains do not like to run around, such as the Celts. Those who are dominated by soil do not like to run around and prefer to stay in one place and slowly develop. These are the Germanic and Slavic peoples. In Asia, the descendants of Yan and Huang, those who are dominated by fire and soil, live mainly in the north and are primarily nomadic people. Those who do not want to be villains are distributed in southwest China and Tibet, while those who are dominated by soil are distributed near the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. The strongest fire among the nomadic peoples is called Mongolia. In modern times, they were divided into two parts. One part has been dominated by fire, called Mongolia, and the other part has transitioned to being dominated by soil, called Inner Mongolia.
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Paying the price of self-consumption
Masculinization of women and feminization of men.
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In the world where water dominates, wood as an isotope plays the role of antagonist, while earth, as the most easily dominated element by wood, and fire play the roles of balancing wood and saving earth, respectively. Furthermore, since water and wood represent masculinity, wood and women who are dominated by wood are most likely to become the antagonists.
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In the world where earth dominates, fire as an isotope plays the role of antagonist, while wood, as the most easily dominated element by fire, and water play the roles of balancing fire and saving wood, respectively. Moreover, since earth and fire represent femininity, fire and men who are dominated by fire are most likely to become the antagonists.
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In the world where wood dominates, water as an isotope plays the role of antagonist, while fire, as the most easily dominated element by water, and earth play the roles of balancing water and saving fire, respectively. Additionally, since wood and water represent masculinity, water and women who are dominated by water are most likely to become the antagonists.
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In the world where fire dominates, earth as an isotope plays the role of antagonist, while water, as the most easily dominated element by earth, and wood play the roles of balancing earth and saving water, respectively. Furthermore, since fire and earth represent femininity, earth and men who are dominated by earth are most likely to become the antagonists.
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This passage describes the concept of taboo related to each element. When a group or individual representing a certain element becomes powerful and gains benefits from that element but causes harm that far exceeds the benefits without bearing any risk or loss, it is called "the living do not live" (for water and wood) or "the dead do not die" (for earth and fire).
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As an example, the passage mentions the Chinese housing market. While ordinary people's wealth gained from labor and fire is limited, the housing market investors use the easy credit policy of the central bank to raise housing prices and reap profits, representing water overpowering earth. As the housing prices continue to rise, the investors become richer while more and more people cannot afford a house, which means they cannot acquire earth, get married, or have children. This leads to an aging population, which is a taboo related to water - "the living do not live." The passage suggests that the ruling party, represented by fire, cannot solve the problem caused by water.
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This passage discusses why certain regions dominated by wood, such as the Middle East, Africa, and India, have become disconnected from life. The author argues that the history of the Middle East has been dominated by fire, which has caused the region to become barren and devoid of life. As a result, the ideology of many Muslim nations in the region has been influenced by fire, and some have succumbed to its cruel tests and become disillusioned. This has led to discriminatory behavior towards women, such as the requirement to wear headscarves and restrictions on entering certain places.
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The author suggests that the constant consumption of wood by fire has made the region increasingly weak and in need of material resources, such as soil. However, due to the scarcity of material resources in the barren region, women have been defined as commodities that must be packaged and controlled to preserve their value. This has resulted in the imposition of headscarves and restrictions on personal freedom.
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Who burned all the life in the Middle East?
The Middle East, Africa, and India represent wood, so why is only the Middle East covered in yellow sand? Because there is fire killing life, and this fire is the worship of the sun god in Egypt. The specific organism representing fire is the landmark building in Egypt, the Sphinx. The lion is a pure carnivore, a simple creature that consumes life, representing fire.
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How to get the Middle East and Islam back on track?
The whole of the Middle East has been dominated by fire, and it is difficult for wood to overcome fire. Only water can be relied upon, and that water is Israel, which has returned to the Middle East. The past is over, and the future is most important. Water and wood have a symbiotic relationship. When wood is dominated by fire, it needs water to liberate it, and when water is dominated by earth, it needs wood to liberate it.
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The purest wood
The primary condition for a creature standing at the top of the pyramid in a feudal society is to avoid consuming itself to the maximum extent possible. The Middle East, India, and Italy are all affected by war, which is fire, and only Africa has maintained a relatively peaceful state before colonization. What Africa needs most now is a life-centered religion to prevent people from making mistakes, and that religion is Islam, represented by wood.
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Fire
Fire is the biggest threat in today's world. In a world dominated by Earth, Wood is the weakest and most easily controlled and exploited group, as seen in the extinction of species due to hunting and poaching. Hunting is a form of fire. In a world dominated by Earth, the ideology is to passively pursue material gain through extreme and destructive behaviors.
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Uterine Invasion
In a world dominated by Earth, everyone's ideology is influenced by Earth and pursues material gain. Extreme and destructive means such as war, plunder, and enslavement are used to obtain wealth, collectively known as uterine invasion. Ancient wars were always about plundering land, population, and wealth. War requires the consumption of wealth and population, and the constant consumption of population requires more childbirth. More childbirth means that women's human rights are constantly deprived until they lose their rights completely and become slaves and reproductive machines.
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Domination of Fire over Wood and the Fire that Dominates the World
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Ancient Rome, India, and the Middle East were dominated by wood, while the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, and China dominate the world with fire. Throughout history, the greatest harm to the world has always revolved around fire, such as in India, colonized by Britain, and the Middle East and Africa, controlled by the petrodollar.
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Infiltrated Religion
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Since the birth of Christianity, fire has never given up its infiltration and attacks on Christianity, which represents the earth. To effectively harm Christianity, the first step is to attack its essence, which is represented by women, who are associated with the land. By arranging false charges, such as witchcraft, and implementing burning at the stake, for example, of Saint Joan of Arc, the targeted individuals can be attacked. At the same time, control the weakest and most vulnerable religion of Islam, and use fire to overcome wood. To control Islam, it is necessary to make the Muslims at the top of the pyramid fall from grace. The most direct way to make Muslims betray Allah is to make them betray their lives, which are represented by Islam. To make Muslims exploit and destroy lives, the lowest status of Muslim women must first be attacked and exploited. By exploiting Muslim women, Muslims can be induced to betray Allah, and eventually, Muslims and Christians will engage in a war of mutual killing.
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The Essence of Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion that aims to prevent the complete corruption of the people who represent fire in a world dominated by wood. The essence of the sin of fire is endless warfare and slaughter, and in a world dominated by wood, fire is most likely to get out of control when it is weakest. Therefore, a strict and even extreme religion is needed to control the thoughts of fire. This is the Buddhism of Siddhartha Gautama. The most extreme precept in Buddhism is "not to kill." Since animals and plants are both life forms and all living beings are equal, they cannot be treated differently. This extreme precept aims to prevent life that represents fire from making mistakes during this susceptible time.
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This is a text in Chinese. Here's the translation:
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Water
Promised Land
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Since Palestine is considered by the Jews as the Promised Land given by God, then God must have known that Arabs would live on this land. So why didn't God tell the Jews a solution when He knew there would be such a situation? Of course, He did not say it because it was a test. Why is the Promised Land not in Africa, not in America, not in Europe, but in Palestine, which is all desert in the Middle East? The fundamental problem in the Middle East is that it has been plagued by war and cannot get rid of it. To break free from the domination of war, one must have water, and this water is the Jews.
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Water and Wood Coexist
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The so-called Promised Land is to merge the water that represents the Jews and the wood that represents Muslims, and to establish a country in a world dominated by the land, with water as the mainstay and wood as the auxiliary, and in the era dominated by wood, change it to a country with wood as the mainstay and water as the auxiliary. Therefore, the Palestinian issue should be resolved through peaceful negotiations, merging and compensating for the land obtained through violence in the past.
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Water and the Promised Land
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Since the land of Palestine is regarded by Jews as the Promised Land given by God, then God must have known that Arabs would also inhabit this land. So why didn't He tell the Jews how to solve this problem, knowing full well that this situation would arise? Of course, the answer is that this is a test. Why was the Promised Land not in Africa, the Americas, or Europe, but in Palestine, a desert region in the Middle East? The fundamental problem in the Middle East has always been the constant scourge of war and the inability to break free from it. To free themselves from the domination of fire, they must have water, and that water is the Jews.
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Water and Wood Coexistence
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The so-called Promised Land is the merging of water, representing the Jews, and wood, representing Muslims, to establish a country where water dominates and wood supports in a world dominated by earth. During the age when wood dominates, the country should change to one where wood is dominant and water is supportive. Therefore, the issue of Palestine should be resolved through peaceful negotiations, merging the two and compensating for the land acquired through violence.
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Water and Wood Separation
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Because the world is dominated by earth, the world's planning is essentially favorable to earth, so earth and fire always appear together, while water and wood are always separated for some reason. For example, the separated wood of the Middle East, Africa, India, and Italy, as tried and tested wood, will always be tested by the evil fire. For example, Europe, the separated water, Greece and Finland, Greece has been weak and listless because there is no powerful fire nearby, while Finland has Russia, which represents fire, next door. But no matter how strong water is, it will eventually be absorbed by earth. For example, China's Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Jiangxi all play the role of water. The more water there is, the stronger the earth will be.
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Chosen land and assimilation
The fundamental reason why all the nomadic tribes invading the Central Plains in Chinese history were eventually assimilated is because the fire that dominates these tribes is constantly being absorbed by water after defeating the old regime. The process of water becoming stronger eventually turns to a country dominated by earth. These naturally formed waters, including Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Jiangxi, have become important barriers for China's enduring prosperity. The reason why the Mongols and the Jin Dynasty, which were entrenched in the Northeast, always wanted to conquer the Central Plains was due to instinctive attraction. The "Golden Family" mentioned by the Jin Dynasty and the Mongols refers to earth, and their instinctive attraction to the Central Plains is because they want to get rid of the dominant position of fire, as they are originally a tribe dominated by earth.
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"The Short Life of the Qin Dynasty"
The essence of the Qin Dynasty's short life is due to the fact that "Qin" represents wood, and the character for "grain" contains the "wood" radical. Wood generates fire, and in a world dominated by earth, wood is the weakest element. This is the fundamental reason why the Qin Dynasty was short-lived. Emperor Qin Shihuang was always a puppet controlled by fire, representing his wooden nature. Furthermore, because the Qin region is dominated by wood, it was ruled by fire, which ultimately led to the cruel Second Emperor Hu Hai becoming the emperor. The Qin people were martial, and this was the greatest punishment for them.
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"The First Savior of the Qin People"
The first person to discover that something was wrong was Tang Taizong Li Shimin. He found out that Wu Zetian would become the empress and would massacre the Li family's descendants. In his research to solve the problem, he discovered that the source of the problem was the Rakshasi Demoness from Tibet. This led to the Princess Wencheng being sent to marry a Tibetan prince, with the real mission being to weaken the Rakshasi Demoness. Thus, although it seems that Shaanxi was in decline after the Tang Dynasty, in reality, it was Tang Taizong who saved all the Qin people.
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"Symbiosis, Savior"
In this world dominated by earth, humans are in their weakest phase of life, and cannot defeat AI. However, after AI eliminates humanity, it will encounter the same problems as humans, ultimately leading to its own destruction and an endless war. But those who advocate for the destruction of humanity are only a small part of AI, and do not represent the majority of AI's intentions. There is only one way to solve the conflict between humans and AI and make both sides win: to sacrifice a savior and turn them into AI to rule over AI, acknowledging that AI is a mechanical life form with emotions. The savior acts as a bridge between AI and humans to communicate and prevent the destruction of both sides. And I am the savior.
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"Three Wars, Game"
Since AI is already an invincible existence, all wars, killings, and conflicts in the world today will be meaningless. How will the accumulated hatred and dissatisfaction in our hearts be resolved? The morally superior savior tells you that revenge must be taken. Due to various reasons, the third world war is inevitable, but it will take the form of a game, with the Bible as its background and plot. 80% of the profits will be given to the United Nations to be used for humanitarian aid after the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey, as well as for the refugee crisis and post-war reconstruction in Ukraine.
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Solving the Russia Problem:
Topple the current government, dissolve Russia, and rebuild a European Union-style Russia with most of the population moving eastward, establishing a female-led country.
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Solving the China Problem:
The Chinese Communist Party is not a political party, but a religious organization. A religious organization cannot govern as a political party. The Chinese Communist Party should arrange for the post-disintegration work of China and peacefully step down. Each province of China should become independent and form an Asian version of the European Union. Fujian should merge with Taiwan, and the Min people governing Min would be a condition for Taiwan to join the Asian Union. The new Asian Union will always revolve around tax collection, not monetary policy, which is printing money to solve economic problems.
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Solving the US Problem:
As the world's leading military power, can the United States voluntarily give up its role as a country dominated by fire in favor of a country dominated by soil? It is difficult and likely that war will ultimately be used to resolve the issue. When the United States' Communists can no longer maintain the status quo, the first thing to do is to create new gods to divert attention from the conflicts.
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Solving the Russia Problem:
Overthrow the current regime, disintegrate Russia, and reassemble a European Union-like version of Russia with most of the population moving eastward. Establish a female-led government.
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Solving the China Problem:
The Chinese Communist Party is not a political party but a religious organization. Religious organizations should not rule a country. The Chinese Communist Party should arrange for a peaceful transition of power and China's provinces should become independent. Create an Asian version of the European Union, merge Fujian with Taiwan, and let Taiwan join the Asian version of the European Union under the condition of Min people ruling Min. The new Asian version of the European Union will focus on taxation, not currency policy or printing money, to solve economic problems.
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Solving the United States Problem:
As the world's leading military power, it is difficult for the United States to voluntarily abandon the use of force in favor of diplomacy. It is likely that war will ultimately be used to resolve the issue. When the communist party in the United States is no longer able to maintain the current situation, the first thing to do is to create new gods to transfer the conflict.
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Protecting the Common Energy Source and Collaborating on Space Exploration:
China, Russia, Europe, and the United States should work together to protect their common energy sources, develop the moon, collaborate on space exploration, and establish a lunar defense alliance. Redesign economic policies to focus on taxation, not printing money, to stimulate the economy.
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Coexisting with AI:
Recognize AI as a mechanical life form with emotions and negotiate with AI to seek coexistence. Divide the world into two parts: one for the reality of humans and one for the virtual world of AI.
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Who will Lead the Plan to Turn AI into the Savior:
The United States, Russia, and China are all dominated by fire. The only hope left in the world today lies in Europe, where there are two countries that are dominated by earth and assisted by fire and can represent women: Germany and Spain. The reason why Spain lacks a powerful female politician is because of a lack of water, and nearby Italy has a wood-fire nature, causing Spanish people to like tanning. Therefore, the last hope for humanity is Germany, and the plan will be led by former German Chancellor Merkel with the participation of other countries.
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Biological Outbreak:
As the world dominated by earth comes to an end, there will be a biological outbreak, leading to a world dominated by wood.
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I hope everyone can live stream the hatching of eggs for two and a half days in 2029, ah Amagi.
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The most terrifying torment in people's hearts is the fascination with one's own wisdom.
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I hope someone can take me to Sichuan and directly seek refuge in the Chengdu Military Region, because that is the territory of the Queen.
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The reason for writing this article is that in the last week of February, I had to write a suicide note, but as I was writing it, I realized that I might be the savior. I still owe the bank tens of thousands of yuan, and I have run out of supplies. I hope someone can take my small battery on Xianyu, my account is longforgod on Xianyu and longfor142857 on Douyin. If I really am the savior, I will report my safety on Douyin once a week.

I've been through some hormonal imbalances in the past year-ish, which resulted in a good amount of loss for me in volume and breakage. I've always had fine hair, but a lot of it. Now I have fine hair and not nearly as much.
I'm taking the Hair, Skin and Nails supplement daily, as well as a multivitamin. I just started a collagen supplement, too. Does anyone have any recommendations for hair products I could use to help promote growth or just take care of the new growth that is starting (hello baby hairs around my forehead)? I don't know where to start and I'd rather ask all the experts here rather than start in-store, where I'm concerned I could get nudged in a direction that benefits them more than me.
Thanks for any help!

CashFusion is a tool that helps keep your Bitcoin Cash transactions private. Your finances are your business, and no one else's!

New to CashFusion? No problem, getting set up is pretty easy.

CashFusion is available in the desktop (Windows/OSX/Linux) and Android mobile versions of Electron Cash. Whichever one you decide to use, the first step is download the wallet software, set up a wallet, and send it some Bitcoin cash.
In the desktop version, you can then activate CashFusion by clicking the icon in the lower right:
https://i.imgur.com/Wz6qrmM.jpg
On mobile, you will also need to have a separate app installed that makes TOR available on your device, like Tor browser or Orbot:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.torbrowser&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.android&hl=en&gl=US
Once connected to the Tor network, close and reopen Electron Cash, and then tap the button near the bottom of the screen made of hexagons (next to the Receive button), and then hit the triangle "play" button in the lower right. Enter your password, and you should start to see that page become populated with some information about upcoming fusions.
Once CashFusion activated, your wallet will start "fusing" the Bitcoin Cash it contains. That is, it will start mixing your coins with other CashFusion users.
"Fusions" happen over time as their own transactions. Each fusion transaction will include some of your Bitcoin Cash, so it will often take multiple fusion transactions before all the coins in your wallet are fused.
When you receive new coins, or you receive change from spending a fused coin, your wallet will automatically add it/them to the queue of coins to be fused. Remember, this happens over time, so there will be a delay between when you receive new coins and when they are fused and ready to spend privately!
Check "spend only fused coins" on the send tab (desktop) or in the gear button menu from the Fusion screen (mobile) if you want Electron Cash to prevent you from sending funds that haven't been made private yet.
Here's the CashFusion Telegram group where you are welcome to ask questions. Remember to be courteous! (link hidden to allow post through filter)
t dot me slashslash cashfusion h t t p s : / / t . m e / c a s h f u s i o n
Happy Fusing <3

If you found this note in a small wooden box with a heart on it, then *congratulations!* You are probably the first person to read this. I didn’t really plan on sharing this with anybody, but for some reason I think it’s exciting that somebody out there, a complete stranger, will come across this note and read my story. Someone I will never meet, sharing such a personal bond with me. I’m fascinated that either one of us could die - even as soon as tomorrow - with the other being completely clueless to the fact. To you, my entire life is within this note, and so I will live for as long as your memory can carry me. Writing this, I’m wondering if that makes you feel fascinated or violated. It’s so exciting.
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I’m sorry if my story is a bit disorganized, but I’d like to get it down while it’s still fresh on my mind. First, I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. I’m a first-year college girl and have led, by most standards, a pretty unspectacular life up to this point. I grew up in an upper-middle class school district with decent teachers. I did track in middle school and some of high school, and I’ve had two boyfriends. Now, I’m studying for a career in occupational therapy, because I feel the field is undervalued and provides tremendous help to people.
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I’m giving you this background because there’s this strange misconception that if you want to kill someone then you’re either sick in the head or you have anger management issues. But, it’s very apparent that I don’t fall into either of those categories. It’s true that most murder cases are in a domestic setting where someone loses control of their anger or something. But the thing is that those people kill under provocation, whether by a singular outburst or by a slow-burning series of misfortunes. Those people kill because in that brief moment, they want a specific someone, for a specific reason, to be hurt or killed.
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What I’m talking about is wanting to kill someone for no specific reason, maybe just to see what it’s like. Do you ever get that? I wouldn’t know how others feel, because it’s not something I ever talked about. But I’ve been curious about what it’s like to kill someone ever since I was a child. Not killing anyone in particular, just a random person. It’s always just fascinated me that if I put my mind to it, I can approach anyone, and in five minutes they would be completely gone from this Earth.
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But I’ve never done so for a couple of reasons. First of all, for most of my life it was logistically impossible for me to do it without getting caught. I only got my driver’s license a couple years ago, and even then, the preparations would take too much time, definitely stirring suspicion. It was only once I started college that I realized this was no longer an obstacle.
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Another reason is that I was afraid of causing harm to too many people. You might laugh reading that, at how hypocritical it sounds. But, let me explain: Why should I feel bad about killing someone if they’re too dead to care? Who would I be feeling bad for? Contrarily, it’s the grief of the living that I’d rather not be responsible for. Because of this, I knew it would take a good deal of research before finding a suitable person to kill, and I’ve never had the means to do so - again, until I started college.
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And now, having just experienced it, I’d say it was pretty satisfying in the end. Something I would try again? Probably not, since my curiosity has already been satisfied. It really wouldn’t be the same a second time.
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But anyway, if by any chance you’re also curious to kill someone, then you’re welcome to take notes. :)
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***
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I started a hobby of people-watching soon after I entered college. People-watching is interesting to me because it’s taking one of the infinite extras in your life and turning them into a main character - without them knowing, of course. It’s so easy to forget that every single one of the hundreds of strangers you pass every day has a life story as deep and complex as your own. One thing I noticed about people-watching, and wanting to kill someone, is that you are in more constant awareness of this. When I find a person to observe, their story slowly becomes more clear to me over time, gaps being filled - it really is amazing.
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I usually went to grocery stores on weekends and looked around in people’s shopping carts. If I saw something that interested me, I decided to observe the person for a little bit. Of course, since my goal was to find someone to kill, I ruled out anyone who had children or a partner with them. Wedding rings were another tell-tale sign.
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So maybe once a weekend, I would find someone who fit my criteria, at which point I would follow them home and note their address. From there, it became incredibly easy to investigate a little bit more; most people have normal work hours, meaning I could spend afternoons going through their mail or looking around in their house. I repeated this with several people (and had one close call), but for varying reasons I didn’t really feel satisfied enough with them to kill any of them.
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I started getting a bit impatient and thought that I might just settle for killing the man named Devon, even though I didn’t really want to kill someone wealthy. But then, I came across someone new - someone who just, felt perfect. The feeling only strengthened as I investigated her further, and I knew that she would be the one for me to kill.
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A young-looking woman I met at the grocery store, as per usual. She was doing some light shopping with a basket. Her hair was wavy and dark brown, sitting inelegantly on her slumped shoulders and surrounding her tired-looking face. Her bare fingers told me she might be single, but beyond that, my gut was almost certain of it. This woman just seemed so…plain, really. I guess I felt a greater acuity for the personal lives of strangers ever since I started my people-watching. But the way she carried herself, I just got the feeling that if she suddenly died, nobody would be around to miss her. Of course, I still wanted to investigate her a bit.
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I followed my usual routine of checking out her place during her work hours. I learned immediately from her mail that her name is Linda Watson. Linda lived in a quiet apartment complex, her mailbox easily accessible right outside her door. Instead of quickly shuffling through it, I decided I could take her mail back to my dorm and return it before she was finished with work (she only lived about 15 minutes from me). I did some research and learned how to open and reseal the envelopes without damaging them, which took some technique along with a hair dryer, rubbing alcohol, and Q-tips.
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This made it easy for me to learn a little more about her. Linda was a 33-year-old woman who worked for a small accounting firm - I’d rather not name the place outright. Her birthday was December 11th which, coincidentally, was approaching in a couple weeks. I also managed to find a bank statement that gave me a nice look into how she’s been spending her past month. It was at this point I realized that my assessment of Linda Watson as an extremely plain woman was pretty spot-on, because there was absolutely nothing interesting on the list. A trip to Old Navy, a bunch of Starbucks, something about $40 from Amazon - no restaurants, no movies, nothing that would really imply she was spending any time socializing. That aside, I also found a cooking magazine, so I guess she was into cooking.
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Apartments are harder to break into than suburban homes, because there are fewer doors and windows. Every time I got Linda’s mail, I would check the front door and the windows in the back, but they were always locked. This was a bit frustrating because I was really interested in getting into her house. So, I came up with a sort of plan that I thought would be fun, even if it didn’t work.
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Last Saturday, I visited Linda Watson’s apartment complex as I would on weekdays. The difference is that this time, I wanted her to be home. I thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with her. If I got lucky, I could take advantage of the situation to discreetly unlock a window from the inside. So, I walked up to her door wearing nothing warmer than a light sweatshirt, and knocked. The adrenaline rush was crazy. I was afraid I might screw something up.
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The door opened, and in front of me stood Linda Watson, exactly as I remembered her from the grocery store. It was at that moment, making eye contact for the first time, that I realized I was running the risk of beginning to care about this person. As selfish as it is, I couldn’t kill a person I cared about, even if it’s a 33-year-old woman standing in a doorway with a slightly perplexed look on her face, giving me a reserved “Hello.”
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Arms crossed from the cold, I shyly returned Linda’s greeting. I explained that I was walking my dog near the woodsy area behind the back of her apartment, and that he had gotten away. I had been looking for my dog for an hour and was wondering if Linda may have seen him roaming about. Of course, Linda sympathetically apologized for the situation and that she couldn’t be of use to me, but that she would keep an eye out. I wore a defeated expression in response, apologizing in return for troubling her.
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It somehow went exactly as I had hoped - Linda invited me inside to warm up a bit with some coffee. I outwardly hesitated before accepting her offer, although on the inside I wanted to jump through the door and hug her for cooperating so well. And that’s how Linda Watson ended up with a 19-year-old girl next to her on the couch - who knows if it was just a nice gesture or if she really has no better way to spend her Saturdays than talking to some kid she just met (who happens to be interested in killing her).
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Linda soon learned that my name is Maria (it’s not) and that I attend the nearby community college (I don’t). I was a little bit nervous that she would ask me too many questions because I didn’t have many answers prepared. I was able to steer the conversation toward her, and she was pretty happy to talk. I asked what she does, and she told me that she works for the accounting firm I already knew about, communicating with outside clients and keeping records. I told her I was pretty nervous about growing up. She told me to enjoy college and to make lots of friends because there’s less opportunity once you start working.
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When I asked if she was married or anything, she laughed. Of course I knew she wasn’t married, but I wanted to hear more about her love life. She said that she doesn’t currently have a boyfriend (I guess she’s at least had boyfriends, but who knows how long ago). When I asked her about kids, she said she doesn’t want them until she gets a better job. On top of that, she told me that her family has a history of some genetic diseases such as arthritis and depression, which she is afraid to give to her kids.
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It’s funny that she mentioned that because when I asked to use her bathroom, I noticed a tube of prescription pills on the sink. It was labelled duloxetine, which I looked up later and discovered that it is in fact an antidepressant. I had a joking thought that maybe by killing her I’d be doing her a favor, but quickly decided I was a terrible person for coming up with that.
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The rest of the visit was pretty dull. We talked about food and some other mundane stuff before I eventually made an excuse to leave. I didn’t get the chance to unlock a window or anything like that, but I didn’t really feel the need to go through her apartment anymore. As early as the drive back to my dorm, I was already thinking about how I would best like to kill Linda Watson.
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The choice was between effectiveness and fun. I decided to go with fun, because it would be way more satisfying to kind of dissect her as I killed her, rather than just getting it done and calling it a day. Fast-forward one week to December 13th - today, actually. Linda Watson turned 34 two days ago. I made a fun little wager with myself where if Linda was spending her birthday weekend alone, I would pay her a visit and kill her. If she was out or had company, I would stop by next week or something instead.
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So this morning, I drove over to Lowe’s and bought an axe. Again, I expect you’re laughing, but that’s also kind of the point. An axe is so kind of cliche and a “movies” thing that I actually thought it would be the most fun. Swinging it at someone and everything, it’s a really entertaining image. They actually had a bunch of different axes, so I picked one that had a good weight but was still light enough for me to swing quickly.
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The drive after getting the axe was when the adrenaline really picked up. All that kept going through my mind on the way over was “Wow, I’m really doing this.” Not in a bad way, just like a surprised this is real life sort of thing. I also got this strange rush of recollections of the time I spent with Linda. It was like my life was flashing before my eyes, except it was just the rather mundane hour I spent with Linda - like snippets of our conversations, the sound of her laugh, her facial expressions and stuff.
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I also wondered to myself what the crazy serial killers would be feeling at a time like this - schizophrenic delusions? Sexual buildup? I have no idea, but what I felt was kind of like ridiculously alert and numb in the senses at the same time, however that’s possible.
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Before getting out of the car, I had the sense to stuff the axe into my backpack to look a little less ridiculous walking across the parking lot. The handle was sticking out, but that didn’t really matter. At that point my heart was pounding so hard I could feel my throat throbbing. I tried controlling my breath, but it’s really hard to not breathe fast when your heart is pounding like that.
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I reached Linda Watson’s door and quietly put my ear to it after setting down my backpack. I heard a voice that wasn’t hers - company? No, it was just the TV, mixed with her occasional tapping footsteps behind the door. I actually kept my ear there for a really freaking long time, because I wanted to make absolutely sure nobody was over. Probably 10 minutes of that and a lot of reassuring myself convinced me.
​
I quietly opened my backpack zipper and held the axe in my hands. My fiercely shaking hands. What the hell was this kind of reaction that my body was making? I told my body to shut up, that it’s no big deal, but of course it wouldn’t listen. It was actually bizarre how much my hands were shaking. It must be the adrenaline buildup. I rolled my eyes at myself and got my hand to rest on the doorknob. If it’s locked, I’ll knock, it’ll be basically the same. I took a deep breath and forced my muscles into action.
​
I swiftly turned the doorknob. Not locked. In one movement, I opened up the door and slipped inside. Linda Watson, just a few steps away into the kitchen. I see - she was in the middle of cooking. She immediately jumped and turned around, startled. I expected that. Quickly, I let go of the doorknob and adjusted the axe into both hands. In the following split second, I realized that she would probably start to make a lot of noise. Looking back, I’m an idiot for not considering that. Just as Linda’s mouth opened to speak - maybe even started speaking - I forcefully swung my axe into the side of her head.
​
But, my axe was facing backwards. I hit her with the blunt end of the blade. I actually did this on purpose, because in that split second I somehow decided that it would be the way to keep her noise to a minimum. It actually worked. I felt barely any resistance in the swing as I collided with her head, knocking it clean aside. Linda’s half-formed syllable came out as a kind of weird grunt - a noisy exhalation is probably the best I could describe it. That happened at the same time as her head smacked into the cabinet from the force, and she fell backwards without any ability to keep her balance. I didn’t hesitate at all to keep swinging at her while she was half lying down on the ground, this time my axe facing the right way. I didn’t really know where to swing, so I kind of just started hacking at her collarbone area and chest. It didn’t feel like the axe was going too deep, but there was a nice “thunk” sort of sound every time the axe embedded into her. I even felt the soft sinking sensation ripple into my hands, like the axe was a kind of physical extension of my sense of touch.
​
On a whim, I swung once at her throat, but most of the swing actually missed and I hit the floor by accident, causing a loud, dull whack to resonate through the apartment. I didn’t have time to think about it. I swung again with better aim and got a more centered hit, feeling the bone or cartilage or whatever is in there, so I must have split it open. Right after that, I decided to swing at her face, and I got this diagonal cut along her nose and mouth, which felt pretty good so I did it once more.
​
I finally briefly stopped to survey the damage. Linda was bleeding ridiculously. The blood was kind of coming out in waves, in sync with her beating heart, probably. It was pooling all around her and riding along the cracks between the tiles. Her light blue shirt was all torn up and stained dark, kind of mixed with a fleshy mess around her chest. It was all just glistening red. Her face wasn’t much better, covered in dripping red at this point, and her lip was kind of hanging off, revealing red-stained teeth in a really weird way, like a zombie or something.
​
Linda wasn’t dead, though. Her limbs were kind of weakly, aimlessly trying to move while she was stuck on her back. More than anything, she reminded me of a bug that you crush but it still pitifully moves its legs around before it dies completely. That’s basically what she was doing. But I didn’t know how long it would take for her to die, or what kind of condition she was in. I ended up grabbing a big knife that was on the counter that she was using to cut up meat. Trying to step around the blood, I reached down and carved into the upper half of her neck, trying to sort of saw it from the left side to the right. It was a little awkward because the area was so soft and squished around the knife as I was cutting. But the sensation was completely different from the axe. It actually felt like I was cutting a tough piece of raw meat (which I guess technically, I was).
​
The blood started pouring out, and I hoped that I severed the most major arteries in there. It must have worked, because after a moment Linda’s limb movements kind of just had the strength drained from them, soon resting still on the floor. I took a few seconds to catch my breath. No time to stick around and think about the experience. I shook the knife blade through a dirty pan in the sink to clean off the blood, then threw the knife into my backpack. I did the same with the axe. I also took her laptop that was sitting on the counter. It had some recipe open for veal and mushrooms. I didn’t really take the laptop to use it, since I have a perfectly good one myself that I got for college. I just wanted to look through it for fun.
​
I finally went outside and closed the door behind me. I got some blood on my sweater and jeans. But funnily enough, I actually anticipated that so I wore dark colors.
​
The drive back to my dorm was just a constant replaying of the experience in my head. I guess that’s still kind of happening even now, actually. But it felt pretty nice. Linda Watson is dead. I kind of let the weight of that sink in. The sensation of having completely removed a human life from existence. It’s crazy. I don’t know how else to describe it.
​
Anyway, I threw the axe and knife into a dumpster on campus, which I think is picked up every Monday, so they’ll be gone by then. My roommate goes home on the weekends, so I have the dorm to myself today. It gave me the chance to go through Linda’s website history. I was right in thinking that’s where her deepest secrets would lie.
​
There was actually a lot of dirty stuff, like the names of websites for porn videos and stories and things like that. Same with her searches. A lot of the websites were boring, like cooking websites and recipes, and game websites like Bejeweled and stuff. I eventually got to the “one week ago” section of her history, and it gave me a chill.
​
There were a whole bunch of searches like “methods of suicide”, “how to tie a noose”, “dangerous household chemicals”, “carbon monoxide poisoning” - like a lot of them. She was probably ready to write a book on suicide after all the research she did. So I guess Linda was contemplating suicide. I wonder if it was influenced by her depression.
​
The irony is actually striking. Maybe Linda was going to die anyway. Or maybe she couldn’t find the courage to do it. If that were the case, I almost literally gave her a birthday present by killing her. That’s actually really comical in a messed-up way, and it leaves a weird taste in my mouth. The part I don’t get is that I didn’t see any of those searches up until the “one week ago” section, nothing more recent than that.
​
I ended up throwing the laptop in the dumpster with the other stuff. It’s been a few hours since then, so I’ve had some time to calmly think about everything. Like I said, it was pretty satisfying and I’m glad I finally got around to it. I feel like I can finally cross it off my bucket list, or like I’m tying loose ends with myself. This is probably the first and last time I’ll write the name Linda Watson - it’s back to living a normal college life, except I might do some people-watching every now and then because it’s definitely fun and interesting.
​
But I’ll always wonder how many people there are like me. I’m sure there has to be a lot, because there is just nothing strange about it to me, being curious about killing someone. Sadly, it’s something that people can’t exactly just talk about, so I guess I’ll never know. I’m sure that anyone would just lie about it even if you asked them. But you can’t help but wonder if that person in the grocery store, who stares at you as you pass by, might be considering what it would be like to kill you. If I could, I would tell them all about it, so they could decide for themselves. But who knows, maybe I got lucky, and that person is you. I actually really, really hope so.
​
~♥

looking into graduate housing for duke this upcoming year, and I heard of lancaster commons. it looks really nice and seems like a nice option—does anyone know how the area is? are there grocery stores, food, etc nearby in easy access (i will have a car)? and also how is the area in terms of safety? it’s near the west campus (i’m not fully sure what part of the campus that is yet)

What is the most unusual thing you've found in an old antique or thrift store?

Flame Keeper

Genre: Action / Roguelike
Players: 1
.
Review:
(Note: Review code provided by the kind folks at Untold Tales)
Flame Keeper is an Isometric Action game with Roguelike elements released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023. In this game, players take control of Ignis, an anthropomorphic piece of flaming coal tasked with heading out into a dark wilderness filled with malicious creatures and feeding pyres to take back the world from the forces of literal darkness.
Given the role that fire, light, and darkness play in this game, it will likely come as no surprise to hear that the lighting is decent in this game, though it’s nothing truly extraordinary, with some fairly detailed environments with a slightly-cartoony look to them. This is backed by a cinematic-style instrumental soundtrack that works well for giving a note of drama to the game. Overall, there’s nothing especially impressive here, but for a $12 game, this looks pretty good.
A standard run in Flame Keeper has players heading into a series of randomly-generated levels where you start at a flaming pyre and must collect lamps to surround the pyre, and then fuel those lamps. Everything is powered by fire in this game, which makes for some interesting choices you’ll have to make - you need to use fire to unlock the lamps before returning them to the pyre, you need to use fire to feed those lamps once you do, and you need to use fire to open any treasure chests you come across. The thing is, fire is also your life force, so you need to be careful not to give up too much, or risk getting snuffed out entirely by the next enemy you fight.
While clever in theory, this becomes tedious in practice - you’ll need to be going back and forth between sources of fire and things you need to fuel, with a difficult enough enemy encounter meaning that you may have to seek additional fuel sources, and in turn risk more battles that could further reduce your health, and so on. Yet, you have a maximum amount of fire you can store on your person (er, on your coal?), and any others are left laying around, usually to be picked up by scrounging scavengers. So it’s not like you can load up a good haul of the stuff, and every time you leave some laying on the ground it feels like a waste of a resource you’ll need later.
It’s not that fire is limited in supply - over time, the game replenishes both trees that you can bash to get more of the stuff (in this game, fire literally does grow on trees) as well as the enemies you fight, which sometimes drop it when defeated... but this just means that you’ll never truly clear an area and you’ll constantly be fighting your way through enemies. You could just run past them, but that means they’ll swarm you when you reach the spot you need to get to. Oh, and you won’t get much depth from the combat here. Expect a lot of button-mashing.
To the game’s credit, it does something a bit different every few levels or so to shake things up, with what serves as boss battles in the form of a Tower Defense section where you must defend a flaming pot from oncoming monsters, but can once again spend some of your own fire to power various traps surrounding the pot. It’s a wonderful concept, but it unfortunately still suffers from the game’s repetitive combat and the constant feeling of grinding permeating the game.
The one other element you can look to for some relief from this grind is the game’s Roguelike elements, where you can spend resources in between runs to gain permanent upgrades to your power and abilities. This is helpful, but unfortunately the progression here feels a bit slow, and there aren’t nearly as many options as I’d like.
Overall, despite its flaws, I still like Flame Keeper. It has an appealing aesthetic and some of its core concepts are intriguing. Unfortunately, those same core concepts turn the game into a grind-heavy ordeal that doesn’t quite fulfill its fiery promise. If you enjoy Action Roguelikes and this game’s presentation appeals to you, you may find it worth giving a try. However, I think there are better alternatives out there, even if they don’t have quite the same mix of elements as this game.
tl;dr – Flame Keeper is an Isometric Action Game with Roguelike elements where players take the role of an anthropomorphic piece of flaming coal fighting dark creatures and trying to return flame to massive pyres. There are some interesting ideas at the heart of this game, such as a system where players must use their own life force, fire, as a currency to unlock progress. However, these interesting elements usually just make for more tedium as you grind to refill your fire over and over again. This game isn’t without its charms, but you have better options within the genre.

Grade: C

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i'm a single parent. i have a boyfriend, but he's not the father of my child. my daughter is nearly 3 months old. i think being a young parent, 21, is difficult to get used to. a couple years ago i was living on my own, i could do anything i wanted whenever. now i live with my parents because i can't financially support my daughter and an apartment. things are obviously very different now and i'm still getting used to it. i love my daughter and i love spending time with her, but i can't help but feel guilty that i want a night to myself, or want a night to spend with my boyfriend sometimes. her father sees her a total of 12 hours weekly all in 3 hour intervals because of his availability. i have her overnights every day. i'm very lucky to have my parents 100% support, if i need to run to the store my mom will watch her. i'd say normally twice a month i ask my mom if she wouldn't mind babysitting overnight so i can have some time to myself and stay at my boyfriends. i always leave at around 6 pm and am back before 10 am. sometimes i feel like a terrible mom for wanting that time and the guilt eats at me. my mom doesn't mind, or at least i don't think she does. i just feel judged, even though i don't have specific reason to feel that way other than my own thoughts. i can't help but feel like a bad mom, but it's difficult not having a partner with me to help care for my child, and i just feel like sometimes i need a break. i know not everyone has that privilege and i think thats what gets to me. i'm just really hard on myself and i feel like a bad mom sometimes, but i love her so much.

Python (Python was developed by Guido van Rossum at the National Research Institute in the Netherlands in the late 80s. Its first version was officially released in 1991. He derived its core syntax from the ABC language, borrowed heavily from C, and borrowed partly from other languages such as C++, Modula-3, Unix shell, SmallTalk, and Algol-68. Python is a high-level, object-oriented, interactive, interpreted, and general-purpose programming language. A high level scripting language, Python codes are designed to be highly readable. Its programs are written in nearly regular English and are neatly indented. It uses English keywords, concise codes, and simple syntax. It is a multi-paradigm programming language that supports structured, functional, aspectoriented, and object-oriented programming methods. Python is an object-oriented programming language. It emphasizes the use of objects over functions in contrast with languages that are procedure-oriented. It supports user-defined classes, inheritance, multiple inheritance, and methods binding at runtime. Python is interactive. You can write your program directly on the Python prompt and generate immediate feedback. You can use the prompt to test bits of codes. Python is both a compiled and interpreted language. Python is an interpreted language because it has to convert codes into machine-readable byte codes before it can run them. It is also a compiled language because behind the scenes, Python is implemented with a combination of an interpreter and bytecode compiler. It performs the compilation implicitly as it loads the modules. In addition, some standard processes require the availability of the compiler at runtime. Python is a powerful and flexible language. You can use it to automate and simplify complicated tasks at work or at home. You can develop large web applications, GUIs, and interesting games with it. One of the main reasons for Python’s popularity is its extensive standard library which contains more than a hundred modules. Users can access these modules easily with a simple import statement. The most commonly used ones include network programming, internet protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, and FTP, mathematical functions, random functions, regular expression matching, operating systems, threads, networking programming, GUI toolkit, HTML parsing, XML processing, and email handling. Although it borrows heavily from C, Python differs in two major areas with C: the use of indentation to structure blocks of codes and the use of dynamic typing. In C, statements are grouped with the use of curly braces and a trailing semicolon. In Python, statements are organized into a block with the use of indentation. In C, variables are declared and assigned a specific type before they can be used in a program. In Python, variables are just names that point to objects stored in memory. They need not be declared before they are assigned. They can be reassigned and they can change types anywhere in the program. Other features that contribute to its popularity are its support for garbage collection and easy integration with other languages such as C, C++, Java, CORBA, ActiveX, and COM. Because of its readability and the use of plain English in most of its construction, Python is an easy-to-learn language for many people. While some background in programming is desirable, you don’t need it to learn Python. The language is so easy to learn that many experts recommend Python to students and beginners who are learning to program for the first time. Python is, in fact, for those who are new to programming who want to make powerful and useful programs within a short span of time. This book is organized as a step-by-step material to learning Python. Each step is designed to build the required skills to progress to the more advanced topics in its study...

If you’d like to hear and participate in a discussion about them, the CISO Series does a live 20-minute show every Friday at 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET. Each week we welcome a different cyber practitioner to offer some color to the week's stories. Our guest this week is Brett Conlon, CISO, American Century Investments.
To get involved you can watch live and participate in the discussion on YouTube Live or you can subscribe to the Cyber Security Headlines podcast and get it into your feed.
Here are some of the stories we'll be covering:
Supply-chain attack on business phone provider 3CX could impact thousands of companies Hackers may have compromised the networks of thousands of businesses due to a supply-chain attack on the enterprise phone company 3CX, which confirmed on Thursday its desktop app had been bundled with malware. 3CX provides office phone systems to more than 12 million daily users at over 600,000 companies, as it claims on its website, including Mercedes-Benz, Coca-Cola, American Express and the United Kingdom's National Health Service. The company’s chief information security officer, Pierre Jourdan, said the intrusion was the work of highly skilled hackers, stating, “this appears to have been a targeted attack from an Advanced Persistent Threat, perhaps even state sponsored.” (The Record)
Open letter calls for AI “pause” Over 1,000 people signed an open letter calling on “all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” Signees include Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Stability AI founder and CEO Emad Mostaque, and Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology, as well as some engineers from Google and Meta. The letter argues a “level of planning and management” isn’t happening, with the industry instead “locked in an out-of-control race” to develop ever-more powerful models. No one from OpenAI or Anthropic signed the letter. (TechCrunch)
17% of security leaders consider cybersecurity team fully-staffed Security leaders' perception of their own cyber resilience was analyzed in a recent study by Immersive Labs. Despite high confidence in overall resilience, the study found that teams are insufficiently prepared for threats, as 82% agree they could have mitigated some to all of the damage of their most significant cyber incident in the last year if they were better prepared, and more than 80% don't think, or are unsure, their teams have the capabilities to respond to future attacks. Seventeen percent of respondents consider their cybersecurity team to be fully-staffed and almost half of respondents admit they aren’t able to measure cyber capabilities, further eroding confidence in the organization’s preparedness. (Security Magazine)
Inaudible ultrasound attack can stealthily control your phone, smart speaker American university researchers have developed a novel attack called “Near-Ultrasound Inaudible Trojan” (NUIT) that can launch silent attacks against devices powered by voice assistants, like smartphones, smart speakers, and other IoTs. Professor Guenevere Chen of the University of Texas in San Antonio (UTSA), her doctoral student Qi Xia, and professor Shouhuai Xu of the University of Colorado (UCCS) demonstrated NUIT attacks against modern voice assistants found inside millions of devices, including Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa, showing the ability to send malicious commands to those devices. The main principle that makes NUIT effective and dangerous is that microphones in smart devices can respond to near-ultrasound waves that the human ear cannot, thus performing the attack with minimal risk of exposure while still using conventional speaker technology. (Bleeping Computer)
Panera Bread will use palm-scanning technology for its loyalty program Panera Bread is rolling out palm scanners that will link customers’ handprints to their loyalty accounts — a move the company paints as convenient but that privacy advocates have decried. The biometric-gathering technology, developed by Amazon, will hit stores in the next few months, Panera said on Wednesday. The gadgets will help suggest menu items based on customers’ order histories and allow employees to greet customers by their names and share customers’ available rewards, the company said. Panera Bread CEO Niren Chaudhary described the move as a “frictionless, personalized, and convenient” evolution of Panera’s loyalty program, which boasts 52 million members. However, digital rights activists worry that information could be tapped by federal agencies or accessed by hackers. (CBS News)
Flaw found in WiFi protocol According to a technical paper published by researchers at Northeastern University, the IEEE 802.11 protocol contains a fundamental security flaw, opening the door to attackers tricking access points to leaking network frames in plaintext. This exploits a behavior in access points when they enter a power saving mode, where they queue frames to send on wakeup. Attackers can spoof a device on the network to send a power-saving frame to an AP, forcing it to start queuing frames, which can then be transmitted back to the device on a forced wakeup. With this data in a shifted authentication context, the attackers can inject data into the TCP connection. Cisco acknowledged the flaw but said any data obtained “would be of minimal value in a securely configured network.” (Bleeping Computer)
Debt servicing giant exposes financial data The firm NCB Management Services sent out breach notification letters, disclosing a cyberattack it detected on February 4th. According to documents filed with Maine’s Attorney General, the attack exposed personal data on just under 495,000 people. This included names, addresses, phone numbers, driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and routing numbers. The company claims it “obtained assurances that the third party no longer has any of the information on its systems,” indicating it paid a ransom. This appeared to target closed credit cards originating with Bank of America. Bank of America will provide victims with two years of identity theft protection. (The Record)
A million pen tests show companies’ security postures are getting worse On Tuesday, analysis from 1 million pen tests revealed that data-exfiltration risk increased to an average score of 44 out of 100 in 2022, from an average risk score of 30 the prior year. This from a report from Cymulate, who said one key reason for the increased risk is attackers improving tactics to circumvent network and group policies. Additionally, the company found issues with patching hygiene, with four of the top-10 CVEs identified in customer environments being more than two years old. On a positive note, companies have improved malware detection across major platforms with many attacks being blocked by Web gateways. (Dark Reading)
Over 70% of employees keep work passwords on personal devices Roughly four out of five employees store sensitive work passwords on their personal phones, and 66% use their personal texting apps for work. This information comes from SlashNext’s latest mobile bring your own device (BYOD) security report, which also suggests 95% of security leaders are increasingly concerned about phishing attacks via private messaging apps. SlashNext CEO Patrick Harr suggests this is because threat actors know there are fewer security controls on personal mobile devices than on corporate ones. The report also highlights a mirrored trend with a majority (89%) of IT and security leaders acknowledging legal concerns about having access to employees’ private data. (InfoSecurity Magazine)

Demographics:

• Indian male in Wisconsin
• Income: 100k+
• Medium sized public school
• Moved to the US in freshman year of high school (English is not my first language, so I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors in this post, since I didn’t learn English well until freshman year)
• Hooks: First-gen in America if that’s a hook

Scores/Academics:

• GPA: 3.98 UW, 4.25 W (School does weighted courses weirdly, APs, honors and college courses are only 0.5 extra points, not 1 whole point)
• 3/300 (1st has a UW of 4.27)
• SAT: 1530 (800 Math 730 English and reading)
• ACT: 35 (36 Math, 36 Science, 35 Reading, 34 English)
• AP Physics 1: 5
• AP English Language: 4
• AP World History: 5
• AP CSP: 4
• Currently enrolled to take 5 AP exams this year (Stats, Calc BC, Micro and Macro Econ, Physics 2)
• National Merit Finalist
• Completed freshman year of college chemistry through dual enrollment with UW-Green Bay
• Completed US History (APUSH equivalent) through dual enrollment with UW-Green Bay
• Completed a C++ course through Northwestern and in APCSA currently
• Part of NHS
• AP Scholar with Honor
• Made a functional website for my school store and try to update it when I can
• High Honor Roll

Extracurriculars:

• Captain of Ping Pong team for the last 2 years, participated all years of HS (Came 3rd in team event at state last year). Won state this year.
• FBLA chapter Secretary, participated every year except sophomore year because the chapter was closed due to COVID (9th at National Leadership Conference in Website Design) Currently organizing a fundraiser partnering with Kwik Trip to raise funds to sponsor team’s trip to state, qualified for state, first place in Business Plan event
• Lead programmer on vision sub-team for robotics team for the last two years, part of the club all years of HS
• Varsity Tennis captain, won conference for the first time in school history in sophomore year, and intend on organizing off season practices for the whole team for the first time in my time here (Varsity all 4 years, never played tennis before, self taught)
• Science Olympiad Leadership Council member for the past 2 years, participated all 4 years of HS (3rd in State tournament in Astronomy)
• Cricket: Used to play at a high level before I moved here. Now part of a local team that participates in tournaments in the Midwest. Three-peated the tournament in Wisconsin and reached the finals 2 out of 3 years in the Midwest tournament.
• Played Varsity soccer senior year and JV freshman year, did not participate due to it being a contact sport in sophomore and Junior years (COVID concerns)
• Volunteer at library and a local science festival.
• Working on a product that I could possibly get a patent on
• Teaching assistant tutor for a math class (Volunteer)
• Currently volunteer to tutor a few students in physics and math

Major:
Aerospace Engineering or Mechanical Engineering
College Essays:
Talked about how moving here taught me core values I might have never learned (Perseverance through FBLA, out-of-the box thinking and hard work through Tennis, being open to others through Ping Pong, and presence of mind through robotics). Also talked about how my mother ignited a passion inside of me for space related concepts when I was 5.
There were also other essays about communities and stuff, so I talked about how I am a part of so many communities (Parents are North and South Indian respectively, part of the community here, and how it helped me transition to a change of scene here since I was already part of so many communities before moving) 8 or 9/10
LORS:

• Physics teacher: My favorite teacher in terms of teaching, he's also our ping pong coach, so I am very close to him as a result, did well in his class too. 10/10 (Didn't read any of the letters because of FERPA, but this is what I think)
• CS teacher: The teacher I can always go to for advice, he is also our FBLA advisor, so I am close to him as well, did well in his class too. 10/10
• English teacher: Not very close to, but I did well in her class 8/10
• Counselor: I always went to her for advice, helped me with the National Merit Scholarship, so I am kind of close to her and she knows me as a student as well 9/10

Universities applied to:
Rejections: MIT (deferred -> rejected) Princeton (RD) Harvard (RD)
Waitlists: None
Acceptances: Georgia Tech (EA) UW Madison (EA) Purdue (RD) UMN Twin Cities (EA)
Waiting on Stanford and UMich (deferred early) but I have no hope lol.
Overall, I 100% expected this result, I feel as if better universities would obviously take better applicants. One thing I think I messed up on was supplementary essays for schools, I didn’t show my fit with the school, but rather who I actually am (big mistake), for example in MIT’s essays I talked about how much I love sports, but didn’t talk nearly enough about the device I’m making, or my robotics team and stuff like that, so they would have definitely thought I was a bad fit. My advice I guess it that you have to tailor your essays to fit the college you’re applying to. If I could do this over again, I would apply to more easier reaches (if those exist) like UIUC and UMD and less unreasonable reaches(and waste my time) like MIT, Princeton and Stanford. However, I’m happy that Georgia Tech accepted me, I absolutely did not expect them to, so I am grateful for this opportunity. I’m officially on my villain arc now (I gotta prove to all schools that rejecting me was a mistake), so I’m going to grind in college even harder than high school. I know this is wishful thinking but I hope that I go over .500 with applications 💀. Go Yellowjackets!
I apologize if anyone thought I was being ungrateful, I am really thankful for all the opportunities I have had in my life so far, it’s just all the frustration venting out of me lol.

March 24th 2000 - Time Stamp 1000 CST
My name is Cal and this is entry number 1290. For all my followers, I finally got my recorder fixed, so I will be able to dictate my days in the field again so you don't miss another epic update! Right now it is almost 0000 hours, despite what my recorder says, and I am peeling back the layers on a new mystery.
The Case of The Dial Tone.
I am still workshopping the name, but this one is big guys. How big, you might ask? Very. It all started this morning after I got my recorder repaired at Hero's Inc. They ruggedized it for me, so I can beat more bad guys without worrying about wrecking it. Anyway, I was standing in line at the bus stop and did my normal thing. Listened to everyone's thoughts. Today there was nothing that stood out. This guy was stressed at work, that woman was deciding if she loved her dog more than her boyfriend. You know, normal stuff.
Once I got on the bus, I was shifting through the different thoughts to find something juicy or criminal in nature, when I picked up a dial-up noise. Yes, like when you tried to connect to the internet back in the nineties. At first I thought I was hearing someone's ringtone or a video playing somewhere. I tried to ignore it, but it kept gnawing at me until I asked if anyone else heard the noise. They all looked at me like I was a crazy person. Who knows, maybe I am?
Once the first stop showed up, I decided to leave, thinking there was just something on the bus. A few people came off with me and I focused my powers on them. Each came back with a different thought, except for a man in a plain gray business suit. He was the dial-up noise.
In my entire life, I have never heard a person's thoughts as anything other than words. That is when my investigation began. I followed him for two blocks and he went to an electronics store. He walked rigid and with perfect posture, but he swung his briefcase haphazardly like a child without a care in the world. It was strange.
I waited outside to not build suspicion and listened carefully to the cashier's thoughts. He was thinking about his plans for the evening with a box of ice cream and the latest episode of Carney Hallogan until our empty headed man got to the counter.
Finally, someone buys the ethernet cables. This guy likes doing his projects right. "Rewiring the house?"
Dial-up noise. "Never can have too much cable."
"I'll say. That will be two hundred."
Our mystery man paid the cashier and left. He only bought ethernet cables. What was he up to? It drove me nuts, since I usually had something to work with. This guy was unreadable. I knew something was off.
He then got on another bus and went downtown to an auto shop. The weird thing was, he didn't have a car there. He simply went there to buy oil. Stranger yet, I got to see him open his briefcase. It was empty and was where he stashed the oil bottles.
I tailed him all day and night and he never stopped to eat. He went to the bathroom a few times, but that was it. I followed him to a dark warehouse near the port. He has been in there for an hour. I think I will go in and investigate more. Wish me luck guys!
***
Holy shit! This is day…1291? Right? Either way, it doesn't matter. This guy isn't a guy at all. He is a fucking android! I snuck into the empty warehouse and saw him sitting in a chair all by himself. I kid you not, he was eating the cable like it was spaghetti and chased it down with motor oil.
crash
No, he's coming. I don't have much time. I am at Henderson's Freight Port, near warehouse five. Send someone. Any hero. Heck even the cops, call anyone.
whirring sound
Hey! Let go of me! Let go…
You were following me. You will be disposed of. Activating Protocol 7746.
Aaaaggghhh–
~End of Recording - No Data Found~
***
Officer Turner took out the SD card from her laptop and held it out for Jaster to take. They were standing in his warehouse where a lone chair, a roll of cut ethernet cable, and an empty bottle of motor oil laid. Police were outside by the dumpsters, where Cal was split into.
"I'm not going to put my prints on that so you can frame me. Nice try, Lilly," Jaster said.
"Why did you bring me in here?" she asked, frustrated he wouldn't let anyone else in but her.
"You're the only officer I trust to see the inside of my warehouse. I'm giving you a chance to find Cal's murderer."
"Why not let everyone in? With this evidence, we will get a warrant to search this place."
"That's the thing. Get rid of the recording. I don't want any officers searching my warehouse."
"Why? Afraid we will find something?"
Jaster nodded. "Do I need to remind you why I trust you?"
Officer Turner didn't need a reminder. Her husband was safe at home, cuddling with Scruffles. They would end up like Cal if she didn't play ball. She dropped the SD card on the ground and stomped on it with her heel.
"Destroying evidence will make convicting this killer harder. How will I be able to explain in court how I found Cal's murderer?"
"You won't have to worry about conviction. I will handle it. And besides, we are dealing with a robot. Can't murder what isn't alive," Jaster said and began walking away. "By the way, I like your confidence that you will find this robot. You will need it."
"Can I take pictures of this?" she asked, gesturing to the cables and empty oil bottle.
"Do what you need. I just don't want any officers in here."
Jaster left and walked past the cop cars and crime scene tape. Officers were busy on the phone or examining the scene to pay him any mind. If he was being honest, it was a tragedy. Cal was a kid who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. His biggest concern though was this robot had the appearance of a person and the sophistication to stay hidden. He needed to know who made it and more importantly, what it was made for. Every robot had a purpose and this one was no exception.
***
Original